How Strong?

Different kinds of strength

by Helen Bryant (revised, originally published in 2010)

Suitable for Whole School (Sec)

Aims

To explore the concept of strength.

Preparation and materials

• Have available an image of a spider web. An example is available at: https://tinyurl.com/5842huy8
• Have available the YouTube video ‘Beautiful spider web build time-lapse’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 4.36 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNtSAQHNONo

Assembly

1. Ask the students whether they have ever looked carefully at a spider web.
   
   Spider webs often seem to appear overnight and can be found in various places.
   
   Show the image of a spider web.
   
   
2. Ask the students, ‘How strong do you think spider webs are?’
   
   Optional: you may wish to ask the students to discuss this question in groups.
   
   Explain that spider webs are extremely fragile and can be destroyed in an instant, yet they are also incredibly strong. Weight for weight, spider silk is stronger than steel, but it looks so fragile that we don’t necessarily think of it as being strong.
   
   
3. Point out that often, we underestimate our own strength. Sometimes, in the moments when we feel most fragile, we discover that we have strength that we didn’t know we possessed.
   
   
4. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ‘You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face . . . you must do the thing you think you cannot do.’
   
   She was saying that, when we feel like we can’t do something, we gain a huge amount of strength from the experience after we have done it. We look back and feel pleased that we have achieved something that we wouldn’t have believed possible.
   
   
5. Often, such strength comes from within. It might involve someone standing up in front of everyone and giving a presentation even though they are terrified, or a person walking out of an abusive relationship, or even simply saying hello to someone we don’t know.
   
   
6. So, next time we feel like we don’t have any strength, let’s think of a spider web: it seems so fragile and can easily be broken, but it has great strength and so do we!
   
   Let’s find the strength inside ourselves to try something new or do something that we once thought impossible. We should remember, though, that there are people here to help if ever we need them.
   
   
7. Show the YouTube video ‘Beautiful spider web build time-lapse’.
   
   

Time for reflection

Show the image of the spider web again.

Ask the students to take a few moments to think about this spider web.

- A spider had to spin the web.
- The web is critical to the spider’s existence.

Ask the students to consider whether they have the equivalent of a web. Do they have things that are essential to their survival, growth and existence? These may be things like family, friends, relationships, education and school.

Encourage the students to develop good, safe webs for themselves. Recommend that they start or continue to spin their own web of support, and remind them that they may also be essential to someone else’s network.