Holding Out for A Hero? Why Not Be One Yourself?
I was reading some research that talked about how Dr. Phil Zimbardo has developed a program that will help train children and adolescents to be heroes. A hero isn’t someone with super powers, but someone who takes actions that are extraordinary in difficult situations. His idea is that heroes are trained, not born. The HIP program promotes the idea that people can be trained to pay attention to how others feel and tap into the natural empathy that we have in order to respond to other people when they’re in need.
I love this project, which is called the Heroic Imagination Project, or HIP. It fits in so nicely with what Operation Transformation is all about. There are a lot of people out there who feel that they’re powerless against the big bad world around them. There are a lot of people who are afraid that their children will be scared by the world. What if, instead of thinking of how to hide ourselves and our kids, we started to think about how to be the heroes in this world, the ones who make it a better place?
When we join together in Operation Transformation, we choose to be heroes, to be world changers. It’s time to take a stand for what’s right in this world. It’s time to stop holding out for a hero and start working on becoming heroes ourselves.
Podcast Gender and Media Talk
Dr. Jennifer W. Shewmaker » Gender and Media Talk
Gender and media podcast for everyday life, featuring interviews with guests ranging from researchers to practitioners in the field. Hosted by Jennifer Shewmaker.
Gender and Media Talk podcasts focus on hot topics and cutting edge research in the areas of gender and media.
Dr. Jennifer W. Shewmaker 
