Students learn of a courageous figure, reflect on how they might exhibit greater courage in the classroom, and make a commitment to engage in one courageous act.
Students will:
Think of an area in your life where you could practice greater courage. What is one action you could commit to taking in the next two weeks to practice greater courage in that area?
Dorothy Thompson was an American journalist and radio broadcaster who lived from 1893 to 1961. She lived through many personal as well as national and international challenges. In her early career, she advocated for women’s suffrage, then went into journalism and radio. She became known as the “First Lady of American Journalism.” In the late 1920s and the 1930s, Thompson worked in Germany (the Weimar Republic at the time), where, in 1931, she had the opportunity of a lifetime: interviewing Adolf Hitler.
She was allowed to ask just three questions, which had to be approved in advance. After the interview, Thompson wrote that Hitler was “formless, almost faceless: a man whose countenance is a caricature; a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones. He is inconsequential and voluble, ill-poised, insecure — the very prototype of the Little Man.” Clearly, this is not a favorable description (depending on the age of your students, you may have to explain further). Her scathing assessment and subsequent critical book, I Saw Hitler!, which warned of the dangers of Hitler coming to power, resulted in the German government formally expelling her from the country in 1934. She was the first American journalist to be forced to leave.
Her truth-telling career didn’t end there. When back in America, Thompson continued her writing and broadcasts denouncing the German government — she even publicly ridiculed a speaker at a 1939 rally for the German American Bund (American Nazis) amidst 20,000 Nazi supporters in Madison Square Garden!
A recent review on best practices for school-based moral education highlights the benefit of using stories of moral exemplars to encourage moral character. Research shows that stories with moral sentiments that show others engaging in moral behavior can encourage similar behaviors in readers.
Furthermore, a study found that participants who wrote the Ten Commandments before engaging in a separate task in which they solved a series of problems and reported how many they got correct were more honest about their scores than participants in the control group. The researchers made the assumption that participants, regardless of religious background or beliefs, would know that the Commandments are a set of moral rules. The researchers concluded that cues in the environment that remind us of moral character can motivate us to act accordingly.
The idea of speaking up in class can be intimidating to many students. This might be due to fears of being judged as incompetant (e.g., if they ask a clarifying question), or being judged harshly because they hold an unpopular view. Yet, part of the learning process requires students to take courageous steps towards challenging existing ideas and asking questions when confused. Thus, it’s important to help students cultivate greater courage in the classroom.
Indeed, research shows that courage can help foster more effective learning strategies and help create safe learning environments in which students speak up when they see an injustice. Furthermore, courage is related to greater life satisfaction in adolescents and greater sense of purpose.
Do you want to dive deeper into the science behind our GGIE practices? Enroll in one of our online courses for educators!
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