The Courage of Children: Boston and Beyond XXXI

Courage in My Life
The mission of The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, Inc. is to strengthen the
literacy 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 a year-long language arts program,
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.
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 sixth grade students in Boston Public Schools and surrounding
public and private schools. By connecting with Max’s story and with awardwinning
literature featuring courageous young people, students come to
recognize and celebrate the role that courage plays in their own lives. Our
work with talented classroom teachers allows us to empower young people
to continue to act courageously, to the benefit of their classmates, families,
communities, and themselves.
Our sixth grade program, Courage in My Life, is a social-emotional learning
tool used in the classroom to help children understand, process, and manage
emotions through the reading and discussion of courage. The courage essay
works as an opportunity for students to gain an understanding of empathy
through their self-discovery of courage and the exposure to the stories of their
fellow students. Using the Courage in My Life curriculum as a social-emotional
learning tool helps students establish positive relationships, evaluate their
actions in new lights, and make more responsible decisions.
This year, due to Covid-19 we worked remotely with our teachers to bring our
curriculum to over 100 classrooms in the United States, and six countries
worldwide. The Courage Curriculum program is growing on a local, national
and global scale. Max Warburg’s legacy continues to inspire young people to
recognize and celebrate the courage in their lives.
The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, Courage in My Life, works to improve
the reading, writing and critical thinking skills of students. We inspire
participants to celebrate acts of courage in their own lives and the lives of
others. We train and support teachers in the use of the Courage Curriculum
to improve their own instruction and to engage and inspire their students to
make meaningful connections to literature. The success of the program is
evidenced by the resulting quality of students’ writing and individual pride
in their work. This is accomplished through a direct correlation between its
emphasis on literature content and writing competency.
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 XXXI
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