Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/more-than-ever-children-and-families-deserve-courageous-leaders/5025426/
Upon the recommendation of the indomitable early childhood advocate Dave Lawrence, I recently read “The Splendid and the Vile,” a new history of the Battle of Britain by Erik Larson. The sacrifices and hardships that the British people endured for days on end, for months at a time, were remarkable and demanded the sort of courage rare among individuals, even more rare among entire populations.
I take the classical view that courage is a virtue formed in us by the long practice of little things that demand a little courage at a time: the courage to confront a bully, to tell the truth, or to risk one’s reputation to defend another person.
Like any exercise, the exercise of virtue in the little things strengthens our ability to exercise virtue in far more difficult times when the risks are greatest. Why were the British people able to act so courageously when confronted by the menace of the Luftwaffe and the staggering might of Nazi Germany? Because they were, in the main, already courageous—and because they had courageous leadership.
For both the average courageous person who endured nights of bombing while encouraging their children, and for Winston Churchill himself, the courage necessary to endure did ...