“The Strive of It”

Kathleen Cushman

Kathleen Cushman spent a year interviewing 150 ordinary U.S. teenagers about how they got good at some particular pursuit. Although they weren’t selected for being exceptionally talented, all the teens she interviewed could easily identify an activity in which they excelled—everything from basketball to knitting—and speak articulately about what drew them to this activity and motivated them to keep practicing despite frustrations. Yet most of the motivating learning experiences they described occurred outside of school. Cushman describes “deliberate practice,” lists the habits of excellence that interviewees identified, and explores how classroom teachers can set up learning conditions that motivate the kind of effective practice and the sense of “flow” that students experience in their out-of-school pursuits.