Heroes

So I have finished four days with my students and five days of student teaching placement. It's been a marathon. We started the year running. I say that because I feel like we've covered so much material. I've even gotten to teach some already. I am going to be able to learn a lot from this teacher. It's going to be a busy but fun semester. If only there wasn't florescent lighting in the classroom. It hurts my eyes.

Today we were starting Beowulf and discussing heroes. The journal questions were "what is a hero?" and "who is your hero?" Good questions. Most of the students answered "brave" or "selfless" for the first question, and parents were popular answers for the second question. Not everyone had a hero.

The varied answers made me think about the ideas of heroes in our society today. In epic poem time, heroes were immortalized in poems such as Beowulf. These were usually ordinary men with extraordinary strength and courage. Their strength was admirable and achievable if one worked hard. Today though, our heroes are either ordinary people who care for us, such as family, famous people, such as Abraham Lincoln, or fictional characters, such as Superman. The discussion made me think about how we view heroes today compared to how heroes were viewed in Anglo-Saxon culture. It seems to me that we heroize people too quickly. We have lost the grandness of a hero by making heroes of ordinary people who haven't showed bravery. Can someone really be a hero anymore? Maybe though, my thinking is biased by the heroic acts produced in Hollywood. The heroism depicted on the big screens is enhanced by special effects and careful writing so that it becomes almost impossible to replicate. The acts done by ordinary people, such as mothers and fathers, seem ordinary compared to the mothers and fathers in movies.

So I'm conflicted still on this topic of heroes. What do you think? What is a hero? Who is your hero? Can we even still have heroes today?

I'll leave you with those questions. I need to get some shut eye so I'm prepared to interact with the students tomorrow.

-Granny Eyre