As college students return to high school, the air is stuffed with pleasure — new backpacks, new classmates, huge objectives. However beneath the floor of every new yr lies a deeper query — one not about grades or check scores.
What character are we nurturing in our kids?
We stay in a time when efficiency usually trumps presence, when flash is mistaken for substance. But two males from very totally different worlds — Fred Rogers and President Theodore Roosevelt — supply timeless classes on actual character. This fall, their phrases could also be simply what college students, academics, and households want.
Fred Rogers, beloved creator of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” was identified for his calm voice and cardigan sweaters. However behind that light method was a daring philosophy: kindness, empathy, and presence aren’t solely virtues — they’re acts of quiet braveness.
In a 2002 Dartmouth tackle, Rogers urged graduates to mirror on the individuals who had “beloved them into being.” He informed the story of a boy who fell throughout a Particular Olympics race. The opposite runners turned again, helped him up, and completed collectively.
To Rogers, this wasn’t sentimentality, it was heroism. A reminder that success isn’t about crossing the end line first, however how we deal with one another alongside the way in which. His message was easy: “You don’t need to be good. Simply be your self and hold making an attempt to develop.” That is the braveness college students want — not simply to talk up, however to be sort. To pay attention. To indicate up when it issues.
Then there may be Teddy Roosevelt, who famously declared: “It’s not the critic who counts…The credit score belongs to the person who is definitely within the enviornment.” His speech, “Citizenship in a Republic,” celebrates those that dare for greatness — who stumble and take a look at once more.
In a world filled with armchair critics, Roosevelt’s problem nonetheless resonates: Don’t sit on the sidelines. Get within the enviornment. Whether or not making an attempt out for the refrain, becoming a member of the soccer group, or tackling an AP class, sustained effort is itself an act of braveness. Roosevelt didn’t promise success — he promised which means within the striving.
One wore sweaters, the opposite a Tough Rider’s uniform — but each remind us that braveness is available in many varieties. It consists of saying, “I’ll attempt” — and saying, “I’m sorry.” Roosevelt urges us to be courageous in effort. Rogers urges us to be courageous in empathy. If we wish to elevate good folks, we’d like each.
As households juggle this new college yr, let’s dare to ask our kids questions of braveness and kindness:
Will you do the best factor, even when it’s onerous?
Will you’re taking dangers — not simply to succeed, however to assist another person?
Actual character is selecting the onerous proper over the straightforward flawed. It is usually lifting others up as we climb. Let’s elevate a era daring sufficient to step into the sector — and mild sufficient to assist within the neighborhood.
Dr. Peter F. Folan is Head of College at Dexter Southfield in Brookline
