Well, yeah, it's mostly used as some sort of cross between self-help and Malcolm Gladwell. I think a lot of people like it because, you know, if "grit" is all that matters, then perhaps we do, Candide-like, live in the best of all possible worlds, and nothing has to be changed.

I think it's worse. It's used to blame students with below-average grades, and blame schools where the students have worse-than-average grades, and blame poor people. See, if they only had grit they could succeed.

I am a fan of the blogger Peter Greene, a high school teacher in Pennsylvania. He frequently talks about the negative sides of grit. I'll quote from him, as he says what I would like to say, and is better about it. The quote is from http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-doesnt-kill-... concerning a Washington Post editorial by Virgie Townsend titled "What doesn't kill you doesn't necessarily make you stronger" http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-doesnt-kill-you-... . Greene commented:

Townsend goes on to catalog, from the Puritans through Teddy Roosevelt through Helen Keller through Oprah, how we love the story of redeeming and clarifying suffering. I would add that it's worth noticing that one of the first things people do in these stories of growth and strength is they stop suffering. It's not like cake. Nobody (well, almost nobody) says, "Wow. That was so good, I think I'll have some more." Suffering in these stories is so good for the hero, and yet the progression, the path, is to move away from it as swiftly as possible. So I'm going to call our attitude confused, at best.

Townsend notes that we all benefit from "life's healthy and normal challenges." But researchers have found that "traumatic incidents often have long-term negative consequences." Childhood abuse or trauma can result in toxic stress-- stress that is literally poison to the body. "In work published in 2012, Harvard researchers found that people who had been mistreated as children had, on average, a 6 percent loss in volume in their hippocampi, a part of the brain involved with learning and memory. Toxic stress also damages the prefrontal cortex, which is linked to social behavior and decision-making, and the cardiovascular and immune systems."

Research suggests that childhood trauma increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, mental health issues and (surprise) poor school performance. "A 2009 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reported that people who had six or more adverse childhood experiences died, on average, 20 years sooner than those who had none."

The classic story of redemption and strength has also been found to be helpful to children, but only when paired with the support of stable adults. Simply invoking grit or Kelly Clarkson is not enough.

The message is clear. Childhood trauma stacks the deck against the children who suffer through it. Invoking grit or repeatedly firing the teachers who can't work miracles won't help.

So, if grit were only used to describe surmounting "life's healthy and normal challenges" then, sure, exercise that so-called 'muscle'. But the problem is that 'grit' is used as a catch-all to surmount all problems in life, including traumatic incidents and childern suffering from the long-term effects of systemic racism and disdain for the poor.