Courage: What We Can Pass On to Students

Kristijan Musek Lešnik
Nov 10, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Nov 26, 2025

Courage isn’t the absence of fear—it’s acting despite fear. In schools, we grow courage by building psychological safety, normalizing mistakes, and rewarding effort, risk-taking, and reflection, not just outcomes.

“Fear shrinks curiosity and learning; courage expands them. A brave learner will try, revise, and try again.”

Schools should be spaces of curiosity, exploration, and courage. Yet too often, they are filled with fear — fear of mistakes, fear of grades, tests, inspections, or failure itself.

Why Courage Belongs in Every Classroom

Fear shrinks curiosity and learning; courage expands them. It helps us face our fears and step out of our comfort zones into the unknown. A brave learner will try, revise, and try again.

Understanding Fear

Fear keeps us safe—until it shows up where no danger exists. Fear is one of the oldest and strongest human emotions. It comes in many forms — and it shapes us in powerful ways. Its original evolutionary role was to protect us from danger. But when fear begins to appear where there is no real danger —when we see threats instead of opportunities — it becomes a barrier to growth.

One of the most paralyzing fears is the fear of failure. It takes root when mistakes are seen as shameful — as proof of weakness — instead of as a natural part of the learning process. That’s why a school can easily become a place where the fear of failure replaces courage.

In a society obsessed with results, standards, and expectations, education too often feels like a competition for grades, awards, and diplomas — as if success in life could be measured only by numbers and certificates. When this philosophy takes hold in a school, fear of failure flourishes. Instead of driving students toward growth, it teaches them that mistakes are dangerous, that they must always please adults, and that their worth depends on performance.

The Damage Fear of Failure Does

Nothing suffocates curiosity and creativity more than the fear of failure. When numbers, grades, and inspections dominate, children and young people learn to please adults instead of pursuing meaning. The result is predictable: compliance replaces courage, and performance overshadows learning.

Fear of failure keeps young people within their comfort zones. It convinces them to play it safe, to repeat what they already know, and to avoid trying something new. They end up investing more energy in avoiding failure than in pursuing success. Their motivation no longer grows from curiosity or purpose, but from the fear of disappointment. They are not guided by courage — but by compliance.

Helping Children Embrace Themselves Fully

A vital step toward courage happens when young people learn to accept themselves fully —with all their talents, strengths, and also their imperfections. When they realize that their worth does not depend on grades or awards, but on who they are as human beings, they can move beyond fear.

The transformation from a child who seeks approval to one who acts from inner motivation happens only in an environment where they feel supported, safe, seen, and accepted. That safety is what gives rise to real courage. When that happens, they no longer fear mistakes —they see them as learning experiences on the path to success. They grow brave not by being shielded from failure, but by being loved through it.

Learning Through Mistakes

Every great discovery and every great personal victory in human history was built on countless attempts that didn’t go perfectly. Mistakes are a natural part of life. Who we are today is shaped not only by our successes, but also by our failures —and what we learned from them.

Teachers have a unique opportunity to reinforce this truth every day. No student is perfect. Every one of them makes mistakes. The role of an excellent teacher is not to prevent them, but to help children face, understand, and learn from them.

Courageous people face their mistakes — and can therefore correct them. Those who fear mistakes deny them — and therefore repeat them. It's as simple as that.

How to Encourage Courage in Children and Youth

Encourage brave decisions. Celebrate effort and risk-taking — not just success.
Talk about fear. Name it, normalize it, and show that it can be faced.
Redefine failure. Explain that failure doesn’t mean “I’m not good enough. ”It means “I’m learning.”
Model courage yourself. Let children see you try new things, admit mistakes, and start again.
Create a classroom climate of safety. When children know they won’t be shamed for errors, they dare to grow.

In the End

Courage is not the absence of fear —it’s the decision to act despite fear. It’s what transforms a hesitant child into a confident learner. It’s what turns mistakes into lessons and setbacks into stepping stones.

When we teach children courage, we give them something far greater than confidence —we give them freedom. It matters, because every time a child dares to try, the world becomes a little braver too.