I love this exchange between the Greek goddess Athena and the hero Perseus.
"But Athena stood before him, spoke gently, and bid him have no fear. Then "Perseus," she said, "he who overcomes in one trial merits a sharper trial still. You have braved Polydectes and done manfully. Dare you brave Medusa the Gorgon?" And Perseus said, "Try me; since you spoke to me in Samos, a new soul has come into my breast, and I should be ashamed not to dare anything I can do. Show me, then, how I can do this!"
"Perseus," said Athena, "think well before you attempt; for this deed requires a seven years' journey, in which you cannot repent or turn back nor escape; but if your heart fails you, you must die in the Unshapen Land, where no man will ever find your bones."
"Better so than live here, useless and despised," said Perseus. "Tell me, then, oh tell me, fair and wise Goddess, of your great kindness and condescension, how I can do but this one thing, and then, if need be, die!"
When Athena asks Perseus if he is a hero, he knows if he tells her that he is, she will punish him for his pride, and if he says he is not, Athena would recognize it as a lie, so he says, "Try me and see."
Perseus then asks Athena to teach him how to do it.
When our students come to school every day and take on the challenge of the curriculum despite not knowing they behave heroically. Please encourage your students to stand before their work as heroes and ask their teachers for help. It will teach them to keep a brave face in an uncertain world.
