Lessons from a Tin Soldier

We have all probably used the phrase “use your imagination”.  Our imagination is influenced by our experiences and background knowledge.  Those experiences and that knowledge help us form pictures in our minds. Using our moral imagination is much the same.  For a five or six-year-old, this experience and background are limited. It is for this reason that I share wonderful stories with my students that help them see what it looks like to show courage, be honest, persevere, be kind, and use self-control.  

If I feel that my students are struggling with a particular virtue, I reach for a book. We were nearing Christmas vacation, and my students were struggling with courage and perseverance. I stumbled upon a book entitled The Steadfast Tin Soldier. I knew this book would be perfect.  

As the story begins, we meet a tin soldier who is not like all the other toys. He has only one leg because he was the last to be cast, and the tin had run out. A picture is painted of all the toys around the room, but one in particular catches his eye—the paper dancer. She appears to be like him, as he is unable to see her leg tucked behind her. If only he could have her as his wife.  As night draws near, the toys begin to play, but not the soldier and the dancer.  They remain steadfast, standing straight and tall. The soldier’s eyes never leave the dancer. This imagery painted a beautiful picture for my students of what it looks like to stay focused on their teacher when others around them may not be. We discussed what it means to be steadfast—a word we now use often in our classroom.  

At midnight, a goblin launches out of a jack-in-the-box, startling the soldier and knocking him over. He is picked up and placed on the windowsill the next morning, where he is blown by the wind— or perhaps the goblin—and falls three stories below. He lands upside down; his bayonet stuck in a crack. The soldier survives many harrowing adventures that require him to remain steadfast and display great courage, including being swallowed by a fish, which ultimately leads him back to the house—and the paper dancer.  My students and I discussed some of the characters he encountered on the way, including impulsive boys and a mean, selfish rat, and how the soldier’s courage and steadfastness ultimately lead him back home.  

My students were not prepared for this story’s conclusion, nor was I the first time I read it. The soldier returns to the other toys, where he can gaze upon the paper dancer once more. However, in what appears to be an act of impulse, one of the boys throws the soldier into the fire. With his eyes on the dancer, he remains steadfast. The dancer joins the soldier in the fire when she is caught by the wind of a closing door. The only things that remain in the ashes are a tin heart and the spangle from the dancer's dress.  

This story did exactly what I had hoped. It painted a picture for my students of what it means to persevere despite adversity and challenging situations, and of how to have courage when something feels too hard.  We often use the phrase “we can do hard things” in our classroom, but I now also remind them to be like the steadfast tin soldier.  They know exactly what I mean.