From former high school teacher Hal Urban’s book Life’s Greatest Lessons: 20 Things That Matter, whose fourth edition is being published this month by Simon & Schuster as A Fireside Book (Fireside, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020; 167 pp., $12 paperback). The book’s first three editions (beginning in 1992) were self-published, and it became a word-of-mouth favorite among parents, teachers, and especially character education advocates.
When he was a freshman in one of my World History classes, I had given a particularly challenging assignment. I warned the kids in advance that I was going to make them do two things teachers weren’t supposed to make students do: think and work. After a few good-natured groans, they started in. About halfway through, someone said, ‘This is hard.’ I responded the way I always do: ‘Life is hard.’ We then proceeded to have a wonderful discussion about philosophy, life, work, pain, joy, and success. Now, years later, this former student probably doesn’t know the capital of Malaysia, but he does know that life is hard. More importantly, he has accepted it.”
