Failure can help students succeed

Despite the name, Paul Tough doesn't look like a Martin Amis character. He's a tall, groomed, optimistic New Yorker - and he thinks he may have discovered the key to our children's success.

"I'm increasingly struck by the sense that lots of parents, educators and administrators feel that there is something missing in education - with low-income kids in particular - but really with kids from every background," says the author and journalist.

Since his first book, (2008) - the inspirational story of one man's quest to boost educational achievement in Harlem - made headlines, Tough, 45, has become something of a seeker after the holy grail of child development.

He is a leading advocate of "slow education", the opposite of pushy parenting, when children are allowed to develop their own self-motivation rather than perpetually being forced to meet the goals and achievements of their parents.

Now, with the publication of his new book, (Cornerstone), Tough is already causing controversy. A "provocative" new child-rearing book is "devastating New York's pushiest parents", is one of the milder comments so far.

Qualities such as perseverance, curiosity, conscientiousness, optimism and self-control, he writes, are more likely to ensure a child's success in life than "cognitive" (the traditional process of acquiring knowledge) teachings. The middle classes in both the US and Britain may feel sympathetic, guilty and angry about the educational and developmental issues facing disadvantaged children globally, but there's an unspoken relief that their children have been spared those particular obstacles.