A big case of resilient development Michael Oher (left) is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and, today, a highly successful professional football player. Achieving this success wasn’t easy, however. During his childhood, his mother was addicted to alcohol and cocaine, his father was often in prison, and he barely passed classes in grade school. But these hardships did not doom him to failure. He was taken in by a family that provided key ingredients for successful social development: a stable home and educational support. His grades and intelligence test scores went up, and he flourished as an athlete. On the right are Jae Head, Quinton Aaron, and Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, a movie based on Oher’s life.