Kindness 101 with Steve Hartman: What does courage look like?

Welcome, class! Steve Hartman's Kindness 101 course is in session. We'll be showing some of our favorite stories and talking about the lessons we learned from them. This episode's topic is an important one: courage.

How do we show courage in the face of things that frighten us? What does courage look like? Why should we aspire to get outside our comfort zone? How can failure be even more powerful than success? These are all questions we'll try to tackle, with your help.

The four people we'll introduce you to all showed incredible courage and bravery when facing a difficult problem. First up is Felicia Perez of Wilmington, Delaware. Though she's one of the shortest kids in her school at 4'8", she was determined to make the football team as a linebacker. She showed courage in the face of very tall odds stacked against her.

Next, we'll meet Gerald Hodges, who calls Arlington, Texas home. Gerald was already a great athlete on land, but he didn't know how to swim. So he decided to face the challenge head-on, and join the swim team. Gerald is a perfect example of the growth that can happen if you step outside your comfort zone and don't let the fear of failure discourage you.

After that, we'll learn about Taylor Wilson – a teenage physics whiz who believes that nothing is impossible, and has broken barriers and records along his way to prove it.

Finally, perhaps the bravest on the bunch is World War II veteran Ed Bray of Cookson, Oklahoma. Ed has two Purple Hearts and a dozen other medals from his service, but his most courageous act didn't come on the battlefield. It came when he admitted he could never read what all his medals were for. Ed shows us how much we stand to gain by being brave enough to ask for help.

If you want to be like Taylor, Ed, Gerald, and Felicia – we have a homework assignment for you. Here it is: try something hard. It doesn't matter what it is, or even whether you succeed – in fact, it might be better if you fail! Try something that's challenging for YOU. You can videotape the results and email them to us at kindness101@cbsnews.com, so Steve can see how you showed courage.

Next week's topic is OPTIMISM!

New episodes of Kindness 101 will be available every Monday at 9 a.m. ET at cbsnews.com/kindness101 through June 1.