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Young American Heroes takes a break-the-mold approach to telling the story of America's past to middle school students. It does so by using ordinary kids doing extraordinary things during key moments in American history. Our mission is to give "Our nation's future leaders a clear idea of who we are, what we stand for, and where we are heading." Young American Heroes is designed to do this by providing tweens with positive, peer role models who not only made the right decisions, but in so doing, changed the history of America in their own small but powerful ways. This series will provide students with a strong ethical compass as they watch peers making good and moral decisions—and the teacher tools will help encourage discussion and writing about how the actions of any one individual can affect the course of history.

 
For instance, Melba Beals, as a 16-year-old, integrated Little Rock High School – and yet in her modesty, claimed it was something that any teenager could have done, "While the nine of us may have been pre-selected, there really are nine, ten, thirty, forty, fifty kids in every community that could have done that. If given the opportunity, you'd be surprised at how much you can do, how much you can achieve." Elisha Stockwell helped free the slaves as a soldier fighting for the Union for four years. He left home a child of 15 and returned a man – and a citizen of a nation where all peoples, both black and white, were now free.

 
In addition to Frederick Douglass, the other four stories planned for our 5-part series are:

 
• Mohawk Princess – The Eunice Williams Story (1704)
• Night Rider – Sybil Ludington (1777)
• Westward Ho! The John Sager Story (1844)
• Soldier Boy The Elisha Stockwell Story (1861)

 
Read the latest draft of our script for the story on Frederick Douglass. Then join the message board on that page to comment. We want to know what you think about our characters, about the locations, about our approach to the story. Does the dialogue sound like "real" kids talking? Ask your students to send us words they use...jargon like Snap, Gnarly, roll (as in I am going to roll in a 300). For more information, visit http://www.youngamericanheroes.com/.

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