FIRST WEEK OF MAY
COURAGE: Meeting a challenge without giving in to fear

Vs. Showing fear

  • SUGGESTED READING:
    Swimmy
    The Story of Helen Keller
    Call it Courage
    The Red Badge of Courage
    Acts of the Apostles 18:15
  • SUGGESTED FILM:
    Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
    Glory

FAMILY ACTIVITY:

  • Parents can recall a time when they overcame a challenge.
  • Talk to your children about moral courage and doing what they believe to be right, even when their friends want them to do something else.
  • Tell your children about a person whose courage you admire.
  • Tell your children about family members who have done courageous things.
  • Help your children to have the courage to try new things by exposing them to something new every week this month. New things might include: the zoo; the railroad museum in Sacramento; a church, synagogue, temple (where they practice a religion other than your family's) to show your children that if they have the courage to explore something new they will find that it is seldom as strange, scary, or boring as they think.
  • Help your children overcome a fear this week.

CLASS ACTIVITY:

  • Students face difficult decisions about whether or nor to use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. These decisions are often complicated by peer pressure. Discuss the courage involved in saying no to drugs.
  • Talk about peer pressure in general. It is often easier to do something you know is wrong, than it is to not do it when others want you to. Discuss why people should say no and do what they know is right.
  • Each week have a part of the class read their compositions to the class. Make sure the class understands that they need to be polite to the people reading. This will help students get used to public speaking, and overcome, or even prevent, a fear of public speaking.
  • Have students put on skits depicting a student resisting pressure from their peers to use drugs.

HIGH SCHOOL ACTIVITY:

  • Invite a veteran to speak to your class about his or her experiences while serving in the military or share your own experiences with your class.
  • What is the difference between moral and physical courage? Is one more important than the other?
  • Invite a police officer to talk to the class about what he or she does and how they deal with fear.
  • Fear of public speaking is one of the most widespread fears among all age groups; you can help your students to overcome it. Since they will have to give a speech for their senior project, give them lots of practice. Require that every student give several oral reports to the class during the year. Talk to your students about basic techniques in public speaking, including the use of note cards and looking just over the head of the last row of people to help them get through it. Give them enough practice that they begin to feel more comfortable each time they make a presentation.
  • Invite a survivor of the Holocaust to talk to the class about their experience and the courage they witnessed and possibly experienced.
  • Have students write about what they would do if something similar to the Holocaust happened to them.

"The greatest mistake a person can make is to be afraid of making one." -Elbert Hubbard

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." -President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"I'd rather give my life, than be afraid to give it." -President Lyndon Johnson

"The only land abroad we occupy is land beneath the graves where our heroes rest." -President Ronald Reagan

"In order for evil to succeed it is only necessary for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke

"Life is a voyage of discovery, not a safe harbor" -British historian, Arnold Toynbee

"It is our earnest prayer to serve America in peace. It's our solemn commitment to defend her in a time of war." -President Ronald Reagan

"The bomb attack . . . was an attempt to cripple Her Majesty's democratically elected government. The fact that we are gathered here now, shocked, but composed and determined, is a sign not only that this attack has failed, but that all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail." -British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, after surviving an IRA assassination attempt

Perform a Random Act of Kindness Each Day

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