Encourage students to examine the etymology and definition of the word. Courage comes from the Old French and Latin words for heart. Courage does not mean the absence of fear, but the ability to triumph over fear and do what is correct. Ask students to look at what others have said about courage. Poet e.e. cummings wrote, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
“The stories of past courage . . . can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself,” wrote Kennedy. The former president says courage is in the soul. Ask students to examine the courageous acts in the book and note: Why the actions were courageous; what the senators endured as they took courageous steps; whether they acted alone; and what, if any, support they had from others as they took bold moves.
In the 2003 edition, Kennedy's daughter Caroline noted: "legend of John F. Kennedy's courage lives on in the faraway Solomon Islands." She mentions a "National Geographic" team who "met the man whose simple canoe saved my father's life and changed the course of history." Courageous actions have impact beyond the moment. Ask students to identify and write about an individual whose past courageous actions impact their lives today.
While Kennedy examined political courage on a national level, students should be able to identify courage in their own community -- political or otherwise. Direct students to local newspapers. Ask them to find a story of courage. In an essay or with a poster have them recount the story. Ask students to answer these questions: What was the courageous act? How did the person show courage? Where did that person's courage come from?