Qualities That Mark the Successful Student: Vision, Goals and Good Habits

There’s a best-selling book about successful people and what makes them that way. After all these years, I know I could write a similar one dealing with successful students.

No, it’s not about high IQs, straight A’s and no social life. Good students are not little Einsteins, they’re no strangers to a C now and then, and their social life is booming.

One of my junior honors students, for example, has spiked hair, plays varsity volleyball, listens to Rage Against the Machine and is reading Kafka. Another, in my senior college prep class, sings in the concert choir, volunteers at a shelter, just saw “Rent” and loves Emily Dickinson.

Despite such diversity, kids who succeed academically have some key traits in common, and some of them may surprise you:

* First off, these young people can envision a range of things they may be doing five years from now, often in great detail. They can actually “see” themselves in college or on the job. The boy who dreams of owning a coffeehouse pays attention in economics; the girl who thinks she may one day study in Mexico does her own Spanish homework. Because they are able to imagine a future for themselves, they make very specific choices that will get them there and not close any doors. “Whatever” isn’t part of their vocabulary.

* Kids who know why they’re taking classes accept the demands of those classes. They don’t cause themselves unnecessary stress by considering the possibility of not doing homework or not turning in a semester project. If there’s a concert on a weeknight, they set the alarm for 5 a.m. to get the Macbeth paper typed in the morning.

You may well ask: Don’t most students at least turn in major assignments? Sadly, no.

In my senior college prep class, only 17 students out of 34 turned in the first paper of the year on time. They’re always sorry to let me down, but regrets don’t earn points.

* Successful students quickly develop habits that work. They use alarm clocks, calendars and daily planners. Homework is finished only when they’ve written a paper they’re actually proud to turn in. They don’t read the government assignment minutes before the quiz, do their biology homework during American lit or sleep during the film on the Nuremberg trials. When something isn’t working, they spend some time figuring out how to fix it. If they’re constantly late to Period 1, let’s say, they find another ride to school.

* Good students play the game well, even if they don’t agree with the rules. Early on they learn how to deal with the realities of an institutional setting. They don’t spend a lot of time banging their heads against rules and authority. If there’s a code against wearing hats, they sigh, then park their Billabong caps at home. It may be a ridiculous rule, but it’s not worth getting suspended, missing the geometry test and thereby allowing the hat to become much more important than it should be. Rather than get a truancy, they surf before school starts.

* Finally, these students tend to support learning rather than put it down. This is not to say they love all their classes or enjoy doing homework, but there’s a respect for the work and the people who do it well. They don’t waste class time trying to be funny, discussing their last party or plugged in to headphones. They don’t make fun of thoughtful comments and don’t encourage stupid ones. If you have enough kids with this attitude in a class, the whole atmosphere changes. When intelligence is valued, there’s more of it in evidence.

My point is that successful students are not part of some exclusive club with mysterious initiation rites. Yes, there are some truly gifted people who do have an edge, but even those folks have to be responsible and focused for their brilliance to be evident. Because success is clearly more about attitude than superior intelligence, it would stand to reason that a lot of students could be doing better than they are.

Christine Baron, a high school English teacher in Orange County, is co-author of “What Did You Learn in School Today?” You may reach her at educ@latimes.com or (714) 966-4550.