It’s about 35 minutes long and well worth watching; grab a cup of coffee and be prepared to think! They can create a classroom culture in which students feel “safe” and accepted. This is no small task. People need courage to be fair-minded thinkers in these circumstances. Middle schoolers are an inhibited and self-conscious bunch. Because of their courage to think differently and to stand up for their ideas, society has advanced and improved. Select the link below for our most recent or upcoming board meeting. Integrity and authenticity are interwoven with intellectual courage; it means telling the truth no matter how uncomfortable. He felt that the American public had a “right to know” what was happening during the war and he was willing, for a time, to place this right above his own well-being. The latter is an unwise approach if we are committed to giving students frequent opportunities to practice intellectual courage. While racing into a burning building to save lives and helping out a person who is being robbed are certainly courageous and admirable acts, even smaller occurrences can count as acts of courage. Here are a few steps in the right direction: 1. In fact, intellectual courage wasn’t initially on IVA’s list of “master virtues.” However, as we reflected more on the obstacles to getting middle schoolers to engage learning in an active and positive way, its importance quickly became apparent. Let’s try that problem again.”, “Are we even asking the right questions about this issue?”, “I’m terrible at math/spelling/languages/reading/etc.”, “We’re just supposed to solve the problem this way.”, “Nobody’s interested in what you have to say.”, keep reference books handy so you can look things up (yes, we still need actual books), get big maps for your walls and explore them with your kids, encourage your children to ask questions (and be patient when they start asking! It takes courage to step out of your comfort zone and listen to others with an open mind. They are quick to judge and criticize and slow to take risks. Let’s find out.”, compete to see how many uses you can find for everyday objects: pencils, paper, tin foil, sugar, money, cotton balls, CDs, play memory games in the car to encourage observation and focus, take an active interest in what your children are learning and ask them what their opinions are about what they are learning, at dinner, ask your family about what they’re reading or ask them for one new (interesting to them) fact that they just learned. Murrow subjected himself to harrowing conditions (conducting live broadcasts from London rooftops with German bombs raining down around him) for the sake of reaching the truth. And we certainly can model intellectual humility ourselves and praise it when we see it in them. For inspiring true stories, ways to recognize and coach intellectual courage in ourselves and our children…READ ON! Your email address will not be published. Examples of Courage: Small Acts to Grand Gestures. We show intellectual courage when we subject ourselves to a potential loss or harm in an intellectual context, for example, in the context of learning or in the pursuit of truth. We show courage when we are willing to suffer a potential loss or harm for the sake of some greater good—when we judge that a certain risk is worth taking. John Kenneth Galbraith. Japanese proverb. For example, confronting a bully or asking out a secret crush … It is only to be understood.”—. “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”—.