The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXX

Damla Bayraktar
Sedef Seker, Teacher
ide Okullari, Istanbul, Turkey
Courage has many meanings for different people. However, courage to me is
to say what you really think, without thinking that you’ll embarrass yourself.
Even if it is wrong or other people disagree with you. Everyone makes
mistakes, but we can’t learn without mistakes.
I have an experience about showing courage and feeling courage. When
I first started fifth grade, I was having a hard time with language lessons
because I believed that I didn’t learn enough in primary school. I was so
bad at English. All my other friends could understand something in English
lessons, but I was just looking up to my teachers’ eyes. Also, I could not
understand anything, and I was a little embarrassed. Our teachers gave
us homework and projects, but my marks were always very low. I was also
not successful in exams. I was so sad about that because I wasn’t learning
anything, but I just kept quiet about this problem.
One night I told my mom that I would never be good at English, my marks
would always stay low. However, my mom told me to imagine my future -
speaking English fluently in seventh grade. I just imagined that, and I decided
to show courage because I wanted to learn English well. I started to think
about how I could improve my language skills; then, I realized that the way
to learn English is asking questions and participating in class. I started to
ask some questions. After that, I learned to ask questions and participate in
class. Day by day I saw that I started to learn English. As I learned that asking
questions is not something embarrassing, my courage developed.
At first, of course, I was not amazing. I had a lot of things to learn, and
also, everyone learns with mistakes. I showed courage, and I started to ask
questions and participate more. Now I am in seventh grade and I feel proud
of my English. I am aware that I have a lot of things to learn, but I am also
aware that I improved so much. Now when my teachers ask some questions,
if I do not know the answer, I still try to give an answer to my teacher. If it is
a mistake, I learn the correct answer. Also, I don’t feel embarrassed now. The
most important thing I learned is that my mistakes are my second teacher.
The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond
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