Don't Eat the Marshmallow

I wrote once in my teacher blog about the importance of self-control to academic success - basically, numerous  studies have found that the ability to delay gratification is linked to academic success (and as far as I know, no studies have found to the contrary). Anyway, I first learned about this effect in a child development class in college, which is also when I first saw the adorable videos of kids trying really hard not to eat a marshmallow:



I think most teachers are at least anecdotally aware of the link between self-control and success in school, and some even try to impart that lesson to their students. But I only just learned through my new job that KIPP schools, which get great results with economically disadvantaged students (and was founded by two TFA alums!), actually explicitly teach their kids about the scientifically-proven merits of the ability to delay gratification. In fact, when you walk into KIPP Philadelphia (and apparently most KIPP schools across the country), this is what you see:

How awesome is that??