Brave Knights and Heroic Courage

C.S. Lewis (far and away my favorite author) wrote, “Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.”

I am currently reading, The Tales of King Arthur to my three sons, ages 4, 6, and 9.  They love the book, the illustrations, and the conversations that follow after each section we read.  Invariably we dive into some version of the conversation that follows after we have finished reading for the evening: “So, who is your favorite knight?” or, “Who is the bravest knight?” or, “If you could be any of the knights at the round table, which would you be and why?”  And the answers come flying back at me, “Tristram because he is the most courageous.” or, “Gawain, because he defeated the Green Knight with honesty.” or “Lancelot, because he is awesome!” (they had not gotten to end of the book when that comment was made by the way).  My heart sings at their enthusiasm for the book and at their engagement with the characters.  It also sings because they have not yet grabbed broomsticks out of the garage and tried bike-jousting:

Another reason my heart sings at the reading of these style of books with my boys is because it inspires them to believe the world is magical, mystical, and capable of inspiring awe.  Occasionally while driving the boys somewhere I will steer the car with only my knee and tell them I am using the force to move the car from one lane to the next.  I raise my hands above the steering wheel, wrench up my face in mock-effort, make a Skywalker-like grunt and drift the car over a lane using only my knee (yes, I check my blindspots and mirrors first).  That “magical” act of the force is always met with hoots and hollers and cries of, “Dad, that is amazing!  Do it again.”  But, I typically feign exhaustion and say I have used up all of my force-energy for the day.  Then, they go on revelling in the mystery of force for the remainder of the ride home.  And I ride home with a self-satisfied smile hoping I have encouraged them to dream deeply about the mysterious powers of the world and hoping one day it will either help them to face a difficult challenge, or inspire them to create and write about their own mysterious world.

I sometimes wonder if we are robbing today’s school children of knights, mystery, the force, and heroic courage.  Are we too results focused to allow for this kind of “distraction” in our curriculum?  I hope not.  We are charged with brightening the destiny of the children entrusted to us.  Not just helping them achieve a certain desirable score on a test, or some other cruel enemy that the world will throw at them.