Special Presentation: How Children Succeed

Using the tools of science, best-selling author Paul Tough peels back the mysteries of character and traces the links between early childhood neurological development and environment. By showing how “nature” and “nurture” are intertwined, Tough explores how childhood stresses modify life success and the surprising ways that parents do — and do not — prepare their children for adulthood. Tough helps us understand how early adversity affects childhood emotional, social, and cognitive development in ways that will carry on throughout their entire lives, and what we can do about it.

Paul Tough is best-selling author of How Children Succeed and a writer for the New York Times Magazine. Tough challenges our culture's belief that intelligence, endlessly measured by test scores, is the sole indicator of value in our education system. He argues that the qualities that matter most have more to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism and self-control.