Bear Grylls has criticised schools for rewarding the cleverest and most sporty children rather than the most resilient.
The adventurer urged pupils to ask their teachers to create an award for children who keep trying despite setbacks, in a bid to encourage resilience.
Mr Grylls, who is Chief Scout and a former SAS soldier, said the world is full of talented people who achieve very little because they lack the fight to win in the battles of life.
He added: “Time after time I have seen less talented yet highly resilient people triumph.”
Writing in a new book on mental resilience for children, Grylls said: “I’ve noticed that schools don’t tend to reward resilience. So often, they love to reward the cleverest and the most sporty.
“The mistake here is that it teaches young people that gritty effort, and getting back up after repeated failures, isn’t what matters, it is natural talent that counts the most. We all know this simply isn’t true.”
He added: “Does your school reward the people who keep trying, keep going, keep getting back up? If not, perhaps speak to your teacher about creating an award for this.”
Grit and resilience have become popular concepts in education in recent years. Ofsted inspectors now look for evidence of how schools contribute to pupils’ broader development, including their character and resilience, when they visit schools.
Grylls wrote the book, Mind Fuel for Young Explorers, to help children cope with challenging times as well as life’s everyday ups and downs.
He said: “I have learnt that the greatest power we have available to us is how we respond to what happens to us.”
In it he also urges children not to “man-up”, but to be vulnerable and cry instead. He said: “Sharing tears takes courage. Vulnerability always does.
“Yet it is still common to hear phrases like ‘men don’t cry’ or ‘come on, toughen up.’
“Hiding tears is a bit like hiding an SOS sign. You are avoiding rescue. I have shared tears with some of the toughest soldiers in the world, crying doesn’t make you weak, it’s a sign of great trust and intimacy.”
He also revealed that the “worst sinking feeling” he has ever felt was failing his first SAS selection, and called on children not to give up after setbacks.
He advised children against ‘all or nothing thinking’, saying: “The worst sinking feeling I have ever felt was being ‘Returned To Unit’ after four months of hard, cold, gruelling SAS selection.
“Everything I had worked for, all that sweat and effort and pain, for nothing. But one small ember of hope remained: I was invited back to try again.”
He called on young people to find a mentor and to stand up against peer pressure, revealing that he finally decided not to worry about fitting in at the age of 15.
He said he felt the pressure to go along with other people when he moved school, but added: “I knew that my character wasn’t totally normal and that I liked many alternative things like climbing over football.
“It took me a while to find the confidence to follow my own path and to worry less about fitting in, but finally, at about the age of 15, I decided to run in my own lane, and do what I wanted to do.”
