"In the 1993 film Groundhog Day, misanthropic meteorologist Phil Connors relives the same 24 hours, over and over and over again...for years on end.

Given nearly infinite “do-overs,” Phil learns to speak French, play jazz piano, and flip cards into an upturned hat. Most important: he discovers the good in other people, and he learns to care about them. In return, they love him back.

There’s a lesson in Groundhog Day for all of us: Trying to do something over and over again, with intention and focus and feedback on what we could do better next time, is how you improve —at anything.” (Duckworth, 2019)

This lesson about grit is a lesson that we reinforce at Red Oaks everyday with students and ourselves. The axiom “Practice makes perfect” is almost correct. “Practice with intention, focus, and feedback makes perfect” is the mantra we at Red Oaks work to instill in our students.

That takes a certain amount of metacognition, another skill we work to impart from very early ages. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction helps students take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them. So a youngster who practices piano daily but without feedback and goals is likely to make the same errors over and over again. A young pianist who says, “This time I need to play an “A”, not a “G” after the rest, is a student who is thinking about goals and is more likely, with practice, to achieve that well played piece.

Between 5 and 10 years of age, children’s understanding of the need to use strategic effort in order to learn becomes increasingly sophisticated, and their ability to talk about and reflect on learning continues to grow throughout the school years. And metacognition is a skill that is easily applied to many different learning scenarios; practicing metacognition when playing the piano can transfer to the presence of metacognition when doing math, reading, or writing.

At Red Oaks, we are keenly aware that a student needs more than intellectual potential to thrive.They need the grit to practice, all the while taking in feedback, setting goals, and intending to learn. This is a skill that helps to develop life-long and effective learners.