Peter Gibbon
July 2002
This terrific book by Peter Gibbon of the Harvard Graduate School of Education is a sort of curricular Mount Rushmore, combining profiles of dozens of heroes with a careful discussion of why educators should teach children about such people. It seems especially timely in the aftermath of September 11, which revealed its own heroes (and villains) and it's a wonderful antidote to two ugly trends in contemporary social studies (and in our culture): the debunking of great men and women so that children see their flaws ahead of their greatness (Churchill drank brandy and smoked cigars&); and the tendency to teach history from the perspective of serfs and shoemakers instead of the central national and international events that shaped their (and everybody else's) lives-events that were substantially influenced by leaders. Not all those leaders were heroes, to be sure. Many were rascals. Children should meet the bad guys, too. But heroism has its own special quality and can contribute immeasurably to children's moral and character education, and to that ancient yearning to live one's life as nobly and fruitfully as someone else did. At a time when rap singers, ball players and movie stars are apt to be the figures that children want to emulate, Gibbon has done a huge service by reminding us that celebrities and heroes are seldom the same-and giving us a generous supply of the latter to use with our students and ourselves. The ISBN is 0871138530 and you can learn more at http://www.groveatlantic.com/grove/wc.dll?groveproc~book~2545.
