Last Friday I talked to a few hundred kids about how to deal with bullies. We talked about two different “word blocks” from Verbal Judo for kids. All around the kids learned some cool new ways to deal with people who are making fun of them but the really interesting thing came a day or two later at the Apple Festival.

Three of the girls who heard my talk saw me making fritters (yummy) and said, “That stuff doesn’t work!”  I ended up finding out that the girls never tried what I suggested and they wouldn’t because in essence it wasn’t the brave thing to do. One of the girls had been to the principals office recently for making fun of another girl after the other girl called her a name (a word I didn’t know until after high school). The girl couldn’t stand the idea of not standing up for herself by fighting back with more harassment.

We’ve totally warped the true meaning of bravery in today’s society. True bravery is doing the RIGHT thing when it’s hard. True bravery is thinking before acting. Bravery is “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.” The important word in there is MORAL. We have to be BETTER then those around us if we’re going to be truly BRAVE.