In and Beyond the Classroom: Educating for Courage

International Conference on Character Education

Yogyakarta University

Nov. 9, 2011

Bernice Lerner, Ed.D.

How might we deliberately go about helping our students to

develop good habits/make wise choices/internalize virtue?

By raising awareness

By inspiring understanding

By encouraging positive action

By fostering reflection

Courage

Ofr. Corage, curage - heart, spirit

L. Cor - heart

Courage• The attitude or response of facing and

dealing with anything recognized as dangerous, difficult, or painful instead of withdrawing from it

• Quality of being fearless or brave; valor

• Mind; purpose; disposition; spirit; temper

- Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language, 1966.

What is the emotion we feel when faced with

a dangerous, difficult, or

painful situation?

.

What is fearful is not the same for every person

Things that are fearfuldiffer in magnitude

and degree

The emotion of fear overcomes us when we...

• fear what we should not.

• fear as we should not.

• fear when we should not.

“The [person]… who faces and who fears the right things, from the right motive, in the right way, and who feels confidence under the corresponding conditions, is brave…”

-Aristotle

The Coward

• Lacks confidence

• Displays excessive fear in difficult/painful situations

The Rash Person

• Is boastful, a pretender to courage.

• Displays inappropriate fearlessness

Guo You Bu Ji

“The excess

is as bad

as the deficiency”

“To see what is right and not do it, that is cowardice.”

- Confucius

The Brave Person

• Is collected beforehand, and excited in the moment of action.

• Is motivated by a sense of honour.

• Will have fears, but will face them as he or she ought.

“Heroism is the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.”

-Henri Frederic Amiel

“Courage, as a virtue… presupposes some form of selflessness, altruism,

or generosity.”

- André Comte-Sponville

Courage is...

• the precondition of all other virtues

• will at its most determined, and, in the face of danger or suffering, at its most necessary.

• resistant to intellectualism

- André Comte-Sponville

Courage Look-Alikes vs. True Courage

• The courage of the citizen-soldier who is not motivated by penalties or prizes, but by an internal sense of what is right.

• The courage of the person who faces death with knowledge of the facts, i.e., that the odds are against him/her.

• The courage of the passionate person.

• The courage of the person who does not have time to prepare a response, who responds bravely to alarms.

• The courage of the person who stands by his/her convictions, no matter the consequences.

How does one become courageous?

“… the virtues we get by first exercising them….we become brave by doing brave acts.”

- Aristotle

“The bravest thing you can do when you are not brave is to profess courage and act accordingly.”

- Corra May White Harris (1869-1935)

“If a man has any greatness in him, it comes to light,

not in one flamboyant hour, but in the ledger of

his daily work.”

- Beryl Markham, West With the Night

Sophie Scholl and the White Rose

The power of a life

Sophie Scholl 1921-1943

Robert and Magdalene Scholl

Inge, b. 1917

Hans, b. 1918

Elisabeth, b. 1920

Sophie, b. 1921

Werner, b. 1922

Forchtenberg, Germany1921-1930

Ulm, Germany1930-1940

State Work Duty, 1940-1942Krauchenwies camp

Hans Scholl

• Became disillusioned with The Hitler Youth

• Intellectual• Soldier• Medical student• Founder of “The

White Rose”

Alexander Schmorell (Schurik)

• In medical school to please his physician father

• Artist & musician• Cherished his

Russian ancestry (on mother’s side)

• Lost his mother in infancy

Christopher Probst

• Soldier

• Medical student

• Married, 3 children

• Came from a family of Bavarian scholars

Willi Graf

• Soldier

• Medical student

• Devout Catholic

• Joined W.R. late

• Got supplies

• Traveled to recruit support

Professor Kurt Huber

• Popular professor of philosophy

• Carefully concealed biting remarks against Hitler

• Contributed to 5th leaflet

• Drafted 6th leaflet

Jurgen Wittenstein

• Medical student

• Introduced Alex and Hans

• Survived. Now a retired doctor and professor living in Santa Barbara, CA

The University of Munich