The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXIII

COURAGE IN MY LIFE
The mission of The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, Inc. is to strengthen the literacy
and social-emotional skills of participating students. Our nonprofit program, provided free
of charge, invites educators and students to explore the idea of courage in literature, their
own lives, and within the broader community.
The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum is an English Language Arts
curriculum founded to honor the life of Max Warburg, a courageous sixth
grader whose steadfast determination and heartfelt hope in the face of his
battle with leukemia continue to inspire our work.
This year, we worked remotely with our teachers to bring our curriculum to
thousands of students at schools in the United States and worldwide.
Additionally, students in Greater Boston afterschool and summer programs
participated in the second year of a pilot curriculum developed for out-of-school
settings. The MAXCourage program is growing on a local, national, and
global scale, and Max Warburg’s legacy continues to inspire young people to
recognize and celebrate the courage in their lives.
Since the program’s inception in 1991, the Courage Curriculum has positively
impacted the academic performance and increased the essential knowledge of
over 250,000 middle school students in Boston Public Schools, as well as other
schools in Boston, throughout Massachusetts, and across the country and
world. By connecting with Max’s story and other stories featuring courageous
young people, students come to recognize and celebrate the role that courage
plays in their own lives. Our work with talented teachers allows us to empower
young people to continue to act courageously, to the benefit of their classmates,
their families, their communities, and themselves.
The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum works to improve the reading, writing,
critical thinking, and social-emotional skills of students. We inspire participants
to celebrate acts of courage in their own lives and the lives of others. We
support teachers in the use of the Courage Curriculum to help their students
discover their voices as writers, and reflect upon and share about their identities
and lived experiences. The success of the program is evidenced by the resulting
quality of students’ writing and their individual pride in their work.
Although it is intensely focused on classroom practice and teacher instruction,
The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum also disseminates this work on its
website, in this annual publication of essays, and at an annual awards luncheon
for Max Warburg Fellows. The luncheon draws students and their families and
teachers together for a culminating event to celebrate the outcomes of the
program and the students’ efforts. The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum
has been featured in academic journals and other publications, positioning the
program as a national model for excellent school and community partnerships.
THE COURAGE OF CHILDREN: BOSTON AND BEYOND
VOLUME XXXIII
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