The Courage of My Convictions
For more information about this program, please contact Elizabeth Evans.The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, Inc. and Northeastern University's School of Education partnered together to expand the Courage Curriculum and build on the depth and structure of the "Courage in My Life" program. "The Courage of My Convictions" is the resulting ninth grade language arts curriculum, which serves to reinforce the ideas presented in the sixth grade curriculum, while examining the nature of courage and its connection to the use of social action to produce change.
The year-long program works to show ninth grade students in the Boston Public Schools and beyond that with careful and thoughtful responses, they can bring about change in the world around them. By framing Max's story with an emphasis on how he and his family worked to unite a community around a specific cause, the students learn how they too are capable of such acts of courage.
"The Courage of My Convictions" replicates the structure and format of "Courage in My Life" (including the alignment with state and district learning standards as appropriate to the ninth grade) and was successfully piloted in four classrooms during the spring of 2006. Since then, it was been voluntarily adopted by teachers in Boston Public Schools and beyond.