I was speaking to parents at Hillview Middle School in Menlo Park, California, an affluent enclave in Silicon Valley. My talk was about virtue. I shared a longitudinal cohort study showing that conscientiousness—which includes traits such as honesty and self-control—predicts good outcomes in adulthood.
A child’s character is a better predictor of health, wealth, and happiness 20 years down the road than the child’s grades or test scores or popularity.
