What is a hero? Is it an astronaut who gets a big parade when they come home? Is it a firefighter who risks their life to save a child from a burning building? Is it a social worker who helps people put their lives together? All three could be considered heroes because they do difficult things, often in dangerous situations. The dictionary says that a hero is a person who is admired because they did something great. Heroes are people who show strength, courage, and grace under fire.
My younger brother thinks that movie stars are heroes because he admires them. But movie stars do not show strength the way real heroes do. When I asked some of my friends to name real heroes they gave examples of people who show strength. Heroes are firefighters who battle fierce fires or emergency workers who go out in bad weather to rescue people or fix broken power lines. These people use physical strength every day to make the world safer for others.
Heroes are not only strong, but they show courage. I saw a story on the television news about firefighters who ran into a burning building to rescue a baby. Even though they might be frightened, they go into a burning building or face a bully or face getting turned down for a job they really need. They keep after it, though. That’s what makes them heroes. They keep trying to get the job done.
Showing grace under fire means that heroes do not get angry or show that they are scared. Even in desparate situations, heroes stay calm and keep there cool. They get the job done. Of course, that is the most important quality in heroes because most people would be afraid in a fire or disaster and would run away. Heroes stay and deal with things.
A hero is a person who gets a job done right and uses strength and courage to get it done. He or she faces the odds without showing that they are afriad. Being a hero is not an easy thing but there are more heroes out there than you might think. People who are heroes do not always get recognized. Some of them don’t even think of themselves as heroes. True heroes are more than action figures, they are ordinary people who are brave, calm, and kind.
Unsung Heroes by Thoughtful Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at k12.thoughtfullearning.com/assessmentmodels/unsung-heroes.