It’s nice to have a hero to look up to and Class 3 students discover many while reading biographies every year. In the spring, they are asked to think more deeply about what makes someone a “hero” and what personality traits, challenges and key events in a person’s life helps them to succeed. Each student drew from her research to create a “Hero in a Can,” a coffee can decorated in the likeness of her chosen hero that houses artifacts symbolic of that person. The students use these artifacts as jumping-off points when discussing the heroes’ lives and accomplishments in presentations to student and parent visitors.

The well-prepared Class 3 students were particularly thrilled to present to their parent visitors last week. One student said she admired the courage of her hero, Rosa Parks, noting that one of her artifacts, a ballot box, represented Parks’ work to make voting safe in the South. Another student chose Harry Houdini, saying what impressed her the most was that he was able to break out of handcuffs—to this day, no one knows how he did that, she said with a smile. An admirer of Yuri Gagarin, the famous Russian astronaut, gave a thorough history of his accomplishments, and, when asked if she would also like to be an astronaut, replied, “Yes, but I want to go to Mars instead.”

While the Class 3 students have wrapped up their presentations of these fascinating individuals, they continue to actively discuss the ways in which they, too, might be heroes someday.

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