courage

Pilot who saved 148 passengers on Southwest 1380 a ‘true American hero’

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Alfred Tumlinson, passenger on Southwest Airlines flight 1380, told the Associated Press that Southwest pilot Capt. Tammie Jo Shults has “nerves of steel.”

Another passenger, Diana McBride Self, describes the former U.S. Navy fighter pilot as “a true American Hero.”

On April 17, Shults’ decade of experience in the military undoubtedly factored into her calm composure when one of two engines on the Boeing 737 exploded in route from New York to Dallas. The explosion blew out one of the windows in the plane, spraying shrapnel inside as pressure pulled a passenger halfway out the window,  The Washington Post reports.

Shults’ character under fire was forged through years of military socialization. Her grit, calm, courage, and care were all evidenced in this unexpected crisis. This kind of moral character, researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture claim is strengthened through “a range of practices and routinized actions.” The crisis only reveals the embodied habits of action that amount to a hero’s character.“Southwest 1380, we’re single engine,” Shults told air traffic controllers as she guided the hobbled plane to Philadelphia International Airport for an emergency landing. “We have part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow it down a bit.”

Shults requested medical assistance to meet the plane on the runway, where she made a relatively smooth, 190 mph landing, saving the lives of 148 people aboard. One passenger, 43-year-old mother of two, Jennifer Riordan, was the only fatality. Passengers managed to pull Riordan back into the plane when she was sucked out the window but were unable to revive her when she went into cardiac arrest, the Associated Press reports.

Despite the chaos in the cabin, numerous passengers credited Shults with maintaining control of the situation, both by calming passengers over the intercom and safely landing the massive jet.

“She was talking to us very calmly,” Tumlinson said. “’We’re descending, we’re not going down, we’re descending, just stay calm, brace yourselves.’”

“She was so cool when she brought that down into the Philadelphia airport,” Tumlinson said. “Everybody just was applauding. I’m just telling you they were just applauding. It was amazing that we made it to the ground.”

Passengers said Shults came back to the cabin after landing to personally check on them.

Those who know Shults weren’t particularly surprised by her heroics. Shults’ mother-in-law, Virginia Shults, described the mother of two as “a very calming person,” and a devout Christian.

Others recalled how she pursued a career in military aviation when women were discouraged, then thrived in the male-dominated industry where she eventually met her pilot husband, who also flies for Southwest.

“My brother says she’s the best pilot he knows,” said brother-in-law Gary Shults, who described Shults as a “formidable woman, as sharp as a tack. “She’s a very caring, giving person who takes care of lots of people.”

Shults declined to comment about the ordeal, other than a prepared, joint statement with first officer Darren Ellisor.

“As Captain and First Officer of the Crew of five who worked to serve our Customers aboard Flight 1380 yesterday, we all feel we were simply doing our jobs,” the statement read. “Our hearts are heavy. On behalf of the entire Crew, we appreciate the outpouring of support from the public and our coworkers as we all reflect on one family’s profound loss.”

Teachers and principals working to strengthen moral and citizenship formation in their students can find information and strategies at the UK’s The Jubilee Centre. In The Jubilee Centre’s own words, the following illustrates how the centre views its work.  “The Jubilee Centre is a pioneering interdisciplinary research centre on character, virtues and values in the interest of human flourishing.  The Centre is a leading informant on policy and practice through its extensive range of projects contributes to a renewal of character virtues in both individuals and society.”

Students join Hope Squads to help struggling classmates through depression, trauma

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Students at Ohio’s Lakota West and Lakota East high schools are stepping up to help struggling classmates in their time of need as part of a new Hope Squad program to prevent teen suicide.

About four dozen students filed into a recent meeting at Lakota West, where Hope Squad CEO Greg Hudnall explained how the program works. Hudnall created Hope Squads after a student committed suicide during his time as a principal for the Provo City School District, which went from one or two suicides per year to a full 15 years without a single suicide.

School researchers note that there is a widespread weakening of social support surrounding contemporary students. Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture found that “There is considerable evidence that strong social support contributes crucially, if not decisively, to their academic success in schools, whether the support comes from parents, and family, youth organizations, or religious organizations. The thickness of social ties also bears positively on the formation of a stable self-identity and, by extension, a child’s moral character.”

The Cincinnati nonprofit Grant Us Hope worked to bring Hope Squads to local schools this year. The idea is to empower students with strong character to work as peer counselors who reach out to classmates struggling through depression or trauma. Hudnall explained that seven out of 10 youngsters who commit suicide tell a friend or show warning signs beforehand, and the Hope Squads aim to intervene before it’s too late, WCPO.

Local teachers and administrators surveyed students to identify their most trusted and accessible classmates, then invited those students to participate in the Hope Squads. Students who volunteer receive training in how to spot students in trouble, and guidance on how to help. One of the first lessons focuses on what’s called QPR – an acronym for question, persuade and refer – as well as other issues like setting boundaries, different stages of grief, and the impact of bullying on suicidal thoughts, according to WTHI.

“I think it will make a huge difference to make sure everybody has a safe place to talk to someone,” said Alyssa Longworth, a Lakota East junior who recently lost a relative to suicide.

Both Longworth and Lakota West junior Logan Grimes, who also lost a relative to suicide, said they’re eager to get started.

“I have confidence once I get the training and once I get through the whole program, I’ll be able to go through it with ease,” Grimes said. “I feel it will help our school be more understanding.”

Teachers and principals working to strengthen moral and citizenship formation in their students can find information and strategies at the UK’s The Jubilee Centre. In The Jubilee Centre’s own words, the following illustrates how the centre views it work.  “The Jubilee Centre is a pioneering interdisciplinary research centre on character, virtues and values in the interest of human flourishing.  The Centre is a leading informant on policy and practice through its extensive range of projects contributes to a renewal of character virtues in both individuals and society.”

 

 

What is calculus courage?

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Destiny, a junior at Springfield Renaissance School, stands at the whiteboard in her math class and tells her classmates, “I’m not sure if this is right.” Admitting such vulnerability, especially as a high school junior, takes courage. Destiny is lucky that her school is forging ahead to try and intentionally form courage in all the members of its community, teachers, and students alike.

Ron Berger, chief academic officer of EL Education, which partners with Springfield, described the approach that EL partner schools take to cultivating “differentiated courage.”

It’s a natural reaction to walk into a successful school, such as Springfield, and wonder what the “secret sauce” is to get 98% of your students graduating on time and 100% of graduates accepted into college. Berger’s answer is, “many things. But one of the most important factors is academic courage.”

Berger explains that EL Schools have an understanding of courage, what they call “differentiated courage,” that they think helps students intuitively connect with the concept and apply it to their own lives. For instance, some people show courage through their service in the armed forces, and others exemplify it by taking the stage in front of an audience. Berger clarifies, “We all have courage in certain realms and less in others. And we can all work on our courage where we need it.”

Berger has seen this understanding and approach to building courage have an impact across EL’s schools. Students begin to see that school provides a breadth of opportunities to display courage, “science courage . . . art courage, or their Shakespeare courage.”

Berger elaborates on the specific case of Destiny and calculus courage, “It means you don’t hide in calculus class, pretending you understand things when you don’t, or pretending you’re too cool to care about the work. It means you take the risk to raise your hand and ask questions, to share your thinking with others, to take critique from peers.”

While some critics might argue that it’s questionable whether or not courage is a virtue that can be formed, Berger says it one hundred percent can be and it should be. He says, “Cultivating courage in students must start with teachers. In fact, the best way for students to learn it is for teachers to model it.”

In EL Schools, teachers lead by admitting their own learning struggles, and then the class courageously works together to master bodies of knowledge that still perplex them. In this way, teachers can not only teach the content but model the virtues of humility and courage that their students will need to take the same learning journey.

Courage and humility are not formed in social isolation. Children need role models to orient themselves to when they are in the initial stages of understanding a virtue like courage. Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter explains in The Death of Character, “Character is not . . . solitary, autonomous, unconstrained; merely a set of traits within a unique and unencumbered personality. Character is very much social in its constitution. It is inseparable from the culture within which it is found and formed.”

The Renaissance School shapes culture by beginning with teachers, and the students learn by practice. There is hardly a better recipe for learning.

EL Schools offers recommendations for building a culture of grappling to help educators build courage in themselves and in their students, whether for calculus or public speaking or essay-writing.

Marine Corps hosts character development summer camp for future leaders

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Some kids go to summer camp to learn how to water ski or ride horses.

Others spend a week immersed in a variety of physical, mental, and ethical challenges to learn how to become community leaders.

Each summer, the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Command hosts a week-long Summer Leadership and Character Development Academy in Quantico, VA, where high school sophomores and juniors learn valuable life lessons from officers, notable leaders, entrepreneurs, Holocaust survivors, and others.

The academy is designed to introduce students to the Marine Corps’ core values of honor, courage, and commitment through ethical decision-making scenarios that Marines face in the real world, as well as daily physical and mental challenges aimed at developing strong character.

“The program is a leadership program that will teach young high school students how to be an integral part of their community,” Lt. Col. Sara McGrath said in a recent Marine Corps feature. “That could be their high school, town or city, or the college they attend. We will give students the opportunity to listen to Marines and community leaders, experience physical and mental challenges, and then form their own leadership style from these challenges.”

“This program allows students to experience a break from their normal life,” added Capt. Paul C. Shipley, acting platoon commander for the program. “It’s an acculturation process and the enthusiasm the students embrace the challenge with really helps them get through the week.”

The academy invites about 200 students each year through a competitive application process that rates applications based on academics, community service work, leadership traits, moral and ethical standards, and performance on an “Initial Strength Test.”

“I believe the students most enjoy the physical aspects of the program,” said Staff Sgt. Cathleen Barsallo, a platoon sergeant. “The students seem to be most active during the obstacle courses, confidence course, morning physical training and leadership reaction course.”

The camp culminates with a graduation for those who complete all the events successfully, “but this is just the beginning,” according to the SLCDA website.

“The goal of the SLCDA is to return students back to their communities more confident, selfless and better equipped to improve the lives of those around them.”

It certainly seems like a recipe for success.

University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter noted in The Death of Character : “It is precisely these kinds of social worlds, defined by a clear and intelligible understanding of public and private good mediated consistently through integrated social networks of adult authority, that moral instruction has its most enduring effects on young people.”

Students long for the kind of structured social world the SLCDA provides.

In a 2017 Tedx talk, high schooler Virginia Cobbs questioned why her school doesn’t focus on character like summer camp does. She knows that organizations tasked with forming youth must focus on character, and the best schools are creating structured social worlds for their students.

Lack of courage at the heart of nation’s political crises

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In a passionate piece in The Atlantic that criticizes all corners of our current political world, Eliot A. Cohen diagnoses us all as suffering from a character crisis. While there are many “forces and phenomena in play,” he writes, “it is character that remains the issue that confronts us in almost every story about national politics . . . ”

“Of all the elements that constitute character, courage is the essential one. Physical courage is in part innate, in part something that can be inculcated by training and experience. The courage to take responsibility emanates more naturally from ambition. What is rarer and more difficult than either is moral courage.”

“As historian Allan Nevins put it, ‘moral courage is allied with the other traits that make up character: honesty, deep seriousness, a firm sense of principle, candor, resolution.’ And of moral courage there is an unquestioned deficit today—in the halls of Congress where the Republican Party has yielded what once were its values to an adventurer in the White House; in a White House presided over by a bully and a braggart who infects even upright generals with his breathtaking dishonesty; in universities where administrators and faculty yield to student mobs baying to be protected from uncomfortable ideas and unpopular individuals, and elsewhere.”

However, research from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture over the last five years would suggest that this crisis of character has been a long time in coming. Dr. Jeffrey Dill, in the “Interview Report” for the 2012 “Culture of American Families” report, noted that “. . . throughout all of the interviews—3,500 pages of transcripts—the words ‘character’ and ‘virtue’ were only used a total of 26 times by 12 different respondents (by way of contrast, the word ‘independent’ and variations of it were used 173 times by 60 respondents). We intentionally did not ask about character directly because we wanted to see if it would emerge organically. Parents clearly cared about the character of their children, but instead of using words like ‘character’ or ‘virtue,’ they used descriptive words like ‘good heart,’ ‘nice,’ ‘self-respect,’ and ‘self- reliance.'”

“Are these words adequate substitutes for ‘character,’ ‘virtue,’ ‘humility,’ ‘patience,’ ‘wisdom,’ or ‘courage’? That is difficult to measure, but words and language do convey meaning and ultimately shape human perceptions of reality. The words we use have the power to create the worlds we inhabit . . . This is especially true in the context of socializing the young. The words parents now employ . . . connote softer, more individualistic, and therapeutic meanings. We might think of them as less commanding or authoritative. The tension—or paradox—lies in the gap between the authority required to do what parents say they want—to form their children into the right kinds of people—and the language they use to describe it.”

Cohen concludes his essay by urging us “to recover an admiration of imperfect civic courage by flawed people, even in occasionally dubious causes. That is best done by returning to our own history, not in a spirit of hero worship, but of respect for the virtues that make free government possible. It is an educational motif out of style, and desperately needed.”

One way of doing that is to read the stories that can be found in great literature, both for children and for adults. In those stories we will find the embodiment of character in which we can participate, stories that give us a purpose greater than we find within us. Another resource is available from the Jubilee Centre: a secondary school lesson on the virtue of courage.

Puyallup teacher awarded for sharing Medal of Honor stories

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United States Medal of Honor recipients created a Medal of Honor Character Development Program for teachers to use in schools. Now, these Medal of Honor recipients are honoring a high school teacher, Ray Brassard, with the first Medal of Honor Excellence in Character Education award.

Ray Brassard, a teacher and high school football coach, tells stories of honor, sacrifice, courage, and determination to his students and athletes. He tells Medal of Honor stories because stories are the currency of character. Without heroes who embody ideals, words like courage, integrity, justice, and honor lack sticking power. Inspired by Mr. Brassard and the Medal of Honor stories he tells, students have a vision to pursue.

“I’ll go up in front of the kids and tell them about a Medal of Honor recipient, and I’ll try to tie their story to something we’re going through . . .,” Brassard told The News Tribune.

“I feel like it’s my responsibility to the recipients to share their stories with as many people as possible,” Brassard said. “There’s an obligation, at least for me, to make sure their sacrifice doesn’t go unheard. This is just one small way I can think to do that.”

According to the Tribune, “Brassard has extensive knowledge of Medal of Honor recipient stories, and says some particularly moving stories come right from home. Right now, tacked to the Medal of Honor Wall in his classroom, is a picture of Doug Munro, the only member of the U.S. Coast Guard to ever receive a Medal of Honor. Munro was from Cle Elum, and died during the Second Battle of Matanikau during World War II as he evacuated hundreds of Marines from Japanese forces. As he died from a gunshot wound on his boat, his last words were, ‘Did they get off?’”

In The Death of Character, James Davison Hunter writes, “Implicit in the word ‘character’ is a story. It is a story about living for a purpose that is greater than the self.” Medal of Honor recipients—without exception—are living stories of this kind of rich character.

Their stories animate Mr. Brassard, his athletes, and students to pursue a purpose bigger than test scores or football games—and that is why he is well-deserving of the Medal of Excellence in Character Education award.

For ways to weave stories of honor and bravery into classroom instruction, the Medal of Honor Foundation provides cross-disciplinary lesson plans for elementary and middle school teachers.

MD school connects students with veterans, role models for character formation

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Maryland’s Francis Scott Key High School is connecting students with local veterans and other role models in the community as part of a concerted effort to build good character, an ingredient parents cited as a critical component of quality education during interviews with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

Audrey Cimino, executive director of the Community Foundation of Carroll County, described in a recent editorial for the Carroll County Times how the FSK Advisory Council and Academic Boosters have deliberately worked to emphasize academic achievement and character education.

The FSK Advisory Council consists of school administrators, faculty, alumni, parents, business, community, and political leaders who came together five years ago to make Advanced Placement tests more accessible to low-income students through scholarships, and boost attendance through McDonald’s gift cards.

But the group is impacting students in other ways beyond academics and attendance.

“The Veterans Day Celebration at FSK has brought the students face-to-face with American heroes and both groups have benefited. The vets get to tell their stories and get to know this new generation,” Cimino wrote. “The students get to hear firsthand the history they have only read about and to appreciate the sacrifices made by previous generations that impact their lives today.”

Last week, the FSK Advisory Council unveiled a Wall of Excellence at the high school—”a place where FSK alumni could be held up to the current student body as examples of what former students had achieved and what was possible for them to achieve as well,” according to Cimino.

“Character counts and it is on display at these celebrations,” she wrote.

The Institute’s “Culture of American Families Interview Report” makes clear it’s very important to present students with role models, particularly from previous generations.

It also highlights the importance of using the word “character” or character’s attending virtues.

In the Institute’s interviews with parents—3,500 pages of transcripts—the words “character” and “virtue” were used only 26 times.

“Parents clearly cared about the character of their children,” the report found, but they used other terms.

Qualities like “courage” or “humility” are difficult to measure, but “the words we use have the power to create the worlds we inhabit,” which is why we have to be intentional about words that are more commanding, authoritative, and inspiring, according to the CAF report.

©2017 Advanced Studies in Culture

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