External Factors Of Academic Resilience

In article How Kids Learn Resilience, Paul Tough argues that stress can push a child into a cycle of failure in school, harmfully impacting a child’s education and outside life. He claims that stress is apparent in every student’s life; however some have more and this stress has a direct connection on the child’s success both in school and out. Stress can be caused by many things, such as economic, family, or even social problems. The stress prevents a student from staying focused in school because they are distracted by other problems. Since they are not able to focus, they do not perform well at school, leading to bad grades, which leads to more stress. This cycle continues and the student is unable to learn as the workload gets more complicated.

“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept it and try to put something together that is good” — Elizabeth Edwards. Becoming resilient is not an easy thing to do, because it takes mental strength and time. For example, in the book Once by Morris Gleitzman, a fictional story, Felix the protagonist is a Jewish boy who was able to stay strong despite all the hardships he faced. Felix becomes resilient by putting others before himself which helped him get over the many struggles he was faced with.

Resilience, when asked to define and explain the act of being resilient, can be a hard thing to describe. It is something everyone must be at one point in their lives, and what some people must be every day. There are different levels to it, depending on what the person is going through at the time. However, resilience is commonly described as just staying strong in a tough situation or time in a person’s life. When something goes wrong, or something bad happens, the person affected doesn’t let it break them. They stand strong against whatever is being thrown at them, but they bend when they need to. Someone who is resilient is flexible, making sure they don’t crack under pressure. As Robert Jordan said in The Fires of Heaven, “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”

Resilience is about how an individual deals, resists, recovers and learns from adversity’s in life. If a child is resilient they are less likely to be damaged as a result of negative experiences and are more likely to learn from and move on. In order for a child to be resilient they need to believe in themselves and have others they can rely on in their lives.

For some people the strong word resilience can impact one’s life in a significant way. Overall, resiliency is having the ability to still enjoy and continue your life with positive, good times, regardless of a hard past or bad experience. It can be shown in various ways throughout a text, including the setting, the plot, and characterization. This is how the texts, The Other Wes Moore, The Art of Resilience, and The Third and Final Continent share their common theme. This theme the three texts convey is that resiliency is vital for a positive as well as successful life.

Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, by Father Gregory Boyle, resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.

Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, Boyle claims resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.

There are varieties of definitions in regards with resilience based on different perspectives (Arrington et al., 2000). For instance, from a developmental perspective, resilience can be defined as positive and successful outcomes despite challenging situations (Masten, 2007; Windle, 2010). Resilience can also be defined as recovery to normal functioning from adversity or coping well under currently risk conditions (Masten, 2007; Windle, 2010). However, not every language has the word “resilience”. For example, a phrase, “the ability to cope with adversity” (Ungar et al.,

From the perspective of students, positive student/teacher relationships are important in their schooling (Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 29). These relationships are important because it gives students more motivation to come to school and to try harder in class (Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 33). Some example of positive student/teacher relationship includes extra help, encouragement, motivation, learning their identity, how to form and maintain professional relationships, and develop socio-emotional skills (Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 2013). Not only do students do well when they have positive relationships, teachers also benefit from them as they are satisfied when students put effort into their work (Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 35). It is cited that a lack of connection to caring adults in school is a variable of alienation, failure, and dropout (Bernstein-Yamashiro and Noam, 17).

Resilience is defined as, “the ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens” (Merriam Webster par 1). Resilience is shown when people use their strength when dealing with adversity. When people are experiencing negative circumstances resilience may lead to positive outcomes (PBS Par 1).

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from life’s daily challenges it’s about being strong and having the ability to respond positively to what life throws at us. We may find ourselves in many challenging and stressful situations throughout life however having the skills needed to cope and deal with them helps us have an effective response to all negative situations.

Fourgere stated, “Resilience is one of purported protective factor that has been highlighted as being of potential importance.” This was stated in regards of some protective factors that are involved with risk factors in offenders. Protective factors are those supposedly known to relate to positive outcomes. Protective factors are those conditions or attributes such as skills, strength, resources, supports, or coping strategies in individuals, families, communities or larger societies that help people deal more effectively with stressful events and mitigate or eliminate risk in families and communities. Resilience is the capacity to recover quick from difficulties. This is a trait or characteristic that has been thought to keep some young offenders from reoffending, Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk, and Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability are some risk assessment tools that related to resilience. Resilience has been identified as both a personal quality or characteristic, as well as a means of coping. Forensics concluded resilience being a trait, a quality that makes one person different from another, or a characteristic, a special quality or trait that makes a person thing, or group different from others. Both defined show a few similarities but remained distinct depending solely on the individual and their circumstances.

One of the greatest challenges I had to face was my transition from Haiti to the United States. During that transition, I was faced with a lot of adversity. It varied from fitting in, academic struggles and remaining focus. Throughout all the trials and tribulations that came with it, I was able to be resilient. In my own words, to be resilient is to allow challenges to impact me in a positive way where at the end I can say I am an overcomer.

During our lives we come across many difficult times in which we learn important skills. However, our actions choose what skills we've gained. For instance, a person who makes rational choices, keeps aware of what these choices do, and never letting the situation over take them have the characteristics of a resilient perosn. People with resilience have a way of dealing with problems in the most effective way possible, like Louie Zamperini, who was lost at sea for months after his plane malfunctioned and crashed. His fight for survival brought forth these traits and caused him to outlive his situation.

When children are put into educational facilities, they get a chance to connect and surround themselves with others of the same age group. Schools can also have significant influence on a person’s individuality as well as peer groups, which influence a student’s academic integrity greatly. A student will not perform well no matter what the case is, if there is negative influence from his peers and their school environment. They affect a person’s attitude, personality in a positive or negative manner.