(by Geoff Brown)

Admittedly, I have not always had a knack for choosing my heroes. When I was around ten years old, the ABC-produced television program “Starsky and Hutch” ran for four seasons at 9:00pm on Wednesday nights. My parents, who until this day remain unmatched in their “coolness”, not only allowed a Starsky and Hutch poster to adorn my bedroom wall, they permitted Wednesday nights to be the one night of the week in which I could circumvent my traditional 8:30pm bedtime and stay up in order to remain apprised of the latest adventures of these two 1970’s Bay City, California cops as well as the world’s coolest car, Starsky’s inimitable Zebra 3. Because my parents were the only ones that would permit such scandalous television viewing for a fourth grader, on Thursday mornings, at Johnston Elementary School in 1976, if you wanted to be updated on the latest adventures of David Starsky and Ken Hutch, well, let’s just say, you had to hear it from me.

At that point in time, real heroes were making history all around me.  To name just a few:  the scientists that circumvented the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island, the peace-making framers of the Camp David and Helsinki Accords, or the astronauts who led the Apollo-Suyoz mission. 

And yet, my choice for heroes were two fictional cops driving an imaginary car while policing a made-up city with pretend problems. Oh, to be ten again!

Times have changed and I would hope that my capacity for hero-picking is a bit stronger than it was four decades ago.  Nevertheless, within contemporary culture, the fundamentals of hero-selection today largely resemble those of a ten-year-old.

What I mean to say is that we can tell much about a culture by their choice of heroes.  Heroes reflect the ideals and the aspirations of the people that make up that culture.  In short, we recognize and elevate individuals who embody and exemplify our core values.  

So, who reflects our contemporary core values presently?  If social media platforms bear any weight in the consideration, based on their millions of followers, our current cultural heroes are an interesting bunch.  With over a billion followers, Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is top of the list.  Just a couple of hundred million followers behind Mr. Ronaldo are pop stars Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber.  The balance of the list is made up of a few Kardashians, a pop star so apparently ubiquitous that the singular name ‘Beyonce’ will suffice, and a gentleman known simply as “The Rock”.  If you scan the list of the top fifty social media stars and starlets, as of March 15, 2025, you won’t find a single politician, religious leader, philanthropist, educator, author, or scientist in the bunch.  Most interesting of all, as you consider the professions of these folks, while you will find some respectable vocations like “actor”, “athlete”, or “musical artist”, one of the more common designations is “media personality”.  These are those that are famous for being famous.  Their superstardom is simply rooted in their superstardom.

Personally, I have a hard time seeing the merits of these folks over either Starsky or Hutch.  Admittedly, my heroes were fictional civil servants but at least they were civil servants.

But, in the spirit of reflection, let’s narrow the focus a bit more from culture at large to culture at home.  Far from ten-years-old today, who are the heroes that I celebrate within my home and within the view of my family?  Who are those that, based on my attentions and affections, my family would consider to be worthy of emulation?  

To be truthful, and this is something that I have recently come to realize, if I draw my conclusions based on those that I spend the most time reading, listening to, or watching, I may not be as far from ten-years-old as I hoped.

So how do I address this?  

I have recently started doing something that I hope will help.  I have started thanking the real Starkeys and Hutches…saying “thank you”, in the hearing of those in my home, to civil servants, teachers, ministers, volunteers, and others whose heroism doesn’t apparently fit on a crowded list of social media sensations.  My hope is that, through my recognition and appreciation, their heroism might be noticed and that, in at least this small way, it will help to shape the culture of my home.

Geoff Brown is the Superintendent of Northwest Christian School located in Phoenix, AZ. Northwest Christian School is one of the largest private Christian schools in the state of Arizona and the only ACSI Exemplary Accredited school in the state.

This post is sponsored by NCS Online. NCS Online is a fully online K-11th grade Christian school providing an online education that is rigorous, affordable, and rooted in Biblical worldview. To learn more about NCS Online, visit NCSonline.org.