Olympic athletes are very brave, don’t you think? They train incredibly hard for many years to be good enough to participate in the Olympics. They compete against the greatest athletes in the entire world!

Think for a moment about an Olympic diver. She slowly climbs up all those steps to the high dive and positions herself. Down below there are thousands of people watching and waiting anxiously, including her friends and family. Millions of other people are glued to their televisions around the world. She must dive perfectly to get a gold medal. Her teammates and her country are depending on her. It takes a lot of courage to do that, right? But do you think she’s scared? Absolutely! But because she’s so courageous, she’ll try to overcome her fears and do the best that she can do.

That’s what courage is all about. Trying to do the best that you can do, even when you’re afraid. But you know something else about courage? Courage means being smart and making the right choices. The Olympic diver is especially trained to do her job.  She has practiced for many years. If you had never gone swimming, you wouldn’t jump off a fifty foot diving board, would you? That’s not bravery, that’s called not being smart! Courage is trying hard and doing the right thing. If you try to do the best you can all the time, and make the right choices every day, you’ll be a hero, too!

This 8-page character ed guide has many activities to make learning about courage fun. It was produced by Project Solution & the Washington Times and distributed by the NIE Institute.

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