You Are the Hero: Teaching the Hero’s Journey to Empower Students and Build Grit
In 1949, Joseph Campbell published The Hero with a Thousand Faces, where he famously introduced the concept of the Hero’s Journey—a narrative arc that appears in myths, stories, and movies across cultures and time periods. Campbell broke it down into twelve stages, from the Call to Adventure to the Return with the Elixir, forming a cycle we now recognize in everything from The Lion King to Harry Potter.
After learning about this powerful storytelling framework, I began to see it everywhere. But more than that, I saw it in real life—in my life, and in the lives of my students.
That’s when it clicked: what if we could teach students to view their own lives as a series of Hero’s Journeys?
Turns out, psychological studies back this up. People who perceive their life through the lens of the Hero’s Journey report a stronger sense of meaning, higher motivation, and greater perseverance. Framing challenges as steps on a personal quest makes setbacks easier to face. Instead of failure, students begin to see obstacles as something to overcome—a test, a dragon to slay, or a lesson to learn.
As a high school teacher, I saw an opportunity to bring this mindset into the classroom, not with capes or superpowers, but with perspective. The Hero in question isn’t Superman or Spider-Man. It’s you. It’s each student. And it’s not even one long, epic journey. It’s a series of smaller journeys, each with its own call to adventure and internal growth.
Here’s how Joseph Campbell put it:
“What I think is a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, and you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of fiasco. But there’s also the possibility of bliss.”
-Joseph Campbell
This quote resonates deeply, not just as a description of stories we watch or read, but as a lens through which students can view their own growth. Every new school year, exam, friendship, or personal setback can be seen as part of a new call to adventure. And each time, the question is the same: do I dare?
That’s the mindset I wanted to nurture in my classroom.
Teaching the Hero’s Journey in Your Classroom
I wanted to bring this mindset to my students, not only to teach English, but to help them find more meaning in life, increase their perseverance, and develop a sense of purpose. After all, as high school teachers, our role goes beyond grammar and writing; we're preparing students for their futures.
So, our journey began with a short video (watch it here) introducing Campbell’s 12 stages of the Hero’s Journey. From there, our full Learning and Evaluation Situation (LES) took off.
The Hero’s Journey, Learning & Evaluation Situation presented at CASLT & Languages without borders, 2025 by Nairy Kazandjian and Sophie Giroux 📸 Le Portrait, Taline Nalbandian @leportrait.ca
We explore the 12 stages through familiar stories and fictional characters, then apply them to real-life figures like Malala Yousafzai, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela and others. Students read texts, conduct research, and analyze character development. Then, we shift inward: they identify their own personal character strengths using the VIA Institute’s 24 strengths, and reflect on how those strengths help them face life’s challenges.
Finally, students write their own narrative, starring themselves as the hero.
And here’s where it gets powerful:
A study conducted by the American Psychological Association (2023) found that people who write about their lives through the lens of a Hero’s Journey report higher levels of meaning, motivation, and emotional resilience (Rogers et al., 2023 | Read it here).
It becomes a transformative experience, a reflective process that allows students to reframe struggles as part of their growth. A setback becomes a test. A challenge becomes a threshold. It’s no longer a failure — it’s Act Two.
As an ESL teacher and content creator, I’ve developed many resources over the years. But the Hero’s Journey has been one of the most impactful I’ve ever used. It helps students grow not just as learners, but as individuals.
If you’d like to explore the unit and bring it into your own classroom, find it here.
