I find my courage to pursue this thread countered by the reality that the topic finds no like minds among the savvy ETS community. Maybe next thread ....

Sorry, I'll be good.

I think role-playing has a place in that it can teach kids what to do in a stressful situation. By knowing what to do they can respond appropriately rather than freezing up in panic. Here are some of the things that DW and I role-play with our daughters:

1. Bad dog! While out walking with my girls I'll occasionally say "Bad dog" and they will move behind me, kneel down into a ball and clasp their hands over their necks for protection.

2. Fireman. One girl will pretend to be on fire. She yells "I'm on fire" then drops to the ground and starts rolling. The other daughter grabs a blanket and helps smother the flames.

3. Princess and the bad guy. An evil ogre tries to kidnap the princess. She responds by yelling for help, fighting to get away, and runs to a king/queen/teacher/guardian and tells them what happened.

However, I don't know if these things really constitute "courage" rather than just doing the right thing at the right time. Perhaps by installing in them a sense of being able to cope with situations like these they are less likely to freak out in a stressful situation. The more exposure to controlled situations the more they build up the sense of self-suffiency which should lessen fear.

I really think the problem is we can't decide on a universal definition of courage.

I think you can teach a child to be self reliant which can lead to grace under fire for most situations. However when something really big comes up it may just boil down to brain chemistry.

I've read a lot about the brain. When it doesn't know what to do it will start scanning through past experiences to try and find out how it responded in a similar situation. Once it finds something it responds in the same way, whether or not this response is appropriate. Role-playing can help the child's brain develop a larger set of experience’s to draw from, hopefully allowing it to find an appropriate response.

-Blast

[Laughs] Blast, thanks for the private message! I was and am only a little frustrated that the thread did not seem to catch fire. I am totally over it. You and many of the ETs community have contributed greatly to my knowledge and pleasure. Thanks!

[I will copy this to the thread.]

I've always found Mr. Burke's words about the notion of evil interesting.

If you take what he wrote literally, he believed that "evil" whatever is meant by that term, is the normal course of events unless countered by brave men.

Do we really think that?

Is evil the way of the world and courage/bravery the only thing stopping it from taking over? What does that say about the human race?

Someone once wrote that courage is not the absence of fear, it's acting while still afraid. I like that definition.

Nothing good but sadly truthful?
-Blast

Or maybe just the human condition. In which case, what does it say about us?

Wasn't it the great philosopher Pogo who said, "We have met the enemy and its us!"

I think courage is usually taught, or at least learned. I think there is some conscious thought involved in it. When Blast teaches his daughters to speak to adults, he is creating the strength for them to say 'No!' when necessary, because doing so will be within their do-able zone, if not their comfort zone.

I get the feeling that Blast's daughters are allowed to make mistakes. Many parents don't know how important that is. All of us have learned more from our mistakes than from our successes, but kids frequently aren't ALLOWED to make mistakes. They have the feeling that they must be perfect, must always make the right decisions, do the proper thing. With teaching like that, it is easier for the child or adult to simply do nothing. They often KNOW what they should do, but after years of conditioning, CAN'T do it.

Courage is knowing what has to be done and then doing it. The knowing is probably fairly common, but going against popular opinion can be a hard thing to do. Without practice, most people can't do it.

It's like starting a fire with a flint and steel. You know the theory, but without pracice, you could end up freezing to death.

Dweste, you say you think courage is a survival skill. Even more than a life-survival skill, it is an emotional survival skill. Pared down to bare essentials, you have to stand up for what you know is right. And that takes more courage to do it than to just think about it.

Sherry, please.

Sue