Character lesssons

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[TRANSCRIPT]: Children from poor families are less likely to go to university. And they’re more likely to drop out when they get there. That’s the achievement gap, and it’s something that educators have long wrestled with. What else can you teach children at school that will help them get on in life?

I’ve come to a school in one of the roughest neighborhoods in New York City—to Harlem, where, alongside conventional subjects, they teach character, self-control, grit…how to bounce back when things don’t go your way. And from their results, it is working. Some of the most disadvantaged children in America now have a better chance of getting through college than the average student.