Question for All Teachers, From Another Teacher About Effort

Last week I was scrolling through Facebook, as I do way too much, but something caught my eye. It was posted by my former high school Science teacher. While we don't talk often I always really appreciated Mrs. Kirby Zornes. While in her class I had no interest in Science but she found a way to make it fun and interesting. She truly cared about the students and making it enjoyable for them. Back to her Facebook post, it was in regards to students effort or lack there of.

Here was her exact post:

Other teachers- help? People always ask me what I have noticed about kids since I started teaching long ago. Honestly, kids today are just as smart, just as funny, and maybe even a little kinder that kids when I first started teaching. However, the one thing that kids had when I first started teaching that they seem to lack now is grit. Kids in my classroom right now give up so easily when something gets even a little difficult- and they seem to expect someone will do it or fix it for them. And you know what? They are right. Someone will fix it. Teachers have an incredibly difficult time issuing failing grades, even when the kids don’t know anything. There are no consequences for skipping class or being a jerk. Parents and students blame the teacher/school/system when things are difficult or hard. Schools too, we are so focused on graduation rates, that we never stop to think “should this kid graduate?” as a result, we are sending totally unprepared kids into the world and into the workforce. Kids today have never had to work through a problem or even solve it themselves, schools, parents, and even society refuse to let kids fail or even make mistakes. As a result, most of today’s kids blame everyone else when something gets hard or tough and don’t just buckle down and do it. Does anyone know how we can impart grit into our students? Edit: Okay, I think I need to clarify. I am not talking about failure as much as just no effort whatsoever. Kids that are not afraid to fail ( those kids are a whole other discussion) but kids that don't even try if it requires an iota of effort. Because they know there are no consequences for lack of effort

The best part of this post to me is this question. "Does anyone know how we can impart grit into our students?" I'm so looking forward to seeing your response.