When I was a kid, it was always my dream to gain supernatural powers and become a superhero.
As a superhero, you could use your super-strength, super-speed, or powers of flight -- or all three, if you got particularly good exposure to gamma radiation -- to save people just in the nick of time, stopping villainy and tyranny in its tracks. I always thought of heroism as doing something dramatic when all appeared lost.
Now that I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to a different understanding of that word. When I look at many of the students I teach, I realize that being a hero to them is more often just doing the mundane things, like considering their opinions, treating them with respect, and just being there consistently.