I had an interesting conversation with a group of colleagues the other day. Someone asked, “Why is it important for us to teach or encourage student leadership? Isn’t it okay to be a follower, a part of a group, a member of a movement?” The question we started with was whether teaching students to be leaders should be a central component of the LREI experience. We realized that we needed to know…. What does student leadership mean? What does it look like? Where do we see it? How do we encourage or foster it? Is it desirable? Should we be encouraging students to become leaders?
In general, we feel that teaching students leadership skills is important as leadership, like most important skills, can only be developed with significant practice. We also feel that learning to be a good follower is important. Not follower in the “mindless, do whatever you are told sense” but follower in the “I have something to add, can work hard and make this idea work sense.” Sometimes the first follower has to be more courageous than the leader.
We see many opportunities throughout the school day for developing these skills. In all three divisions, short and long term group projects provide a series of opportunities to play different roles in the group. One day you might be leading your third grade peers in a group planning a social studies project and the next you might be a hard working colleague following that day’s math group leader. These informal opportunities are important and frequent and found throughout the fourteen-year LREI experience—daily opportunities to practice, to succeed, to take a risk, to fail and to learn from all of these roles.
There are also more formal opportunities for student leadership. Fourth graders now lead the weekly lower school gathering. Working with Namita, or another lower school adult, the week’s assembly leaders plan the program, write a script, find ways to draw their audience into the gathering and then, finally, lead a 30-minute get-together. Real, public leadership for all fourth graders and an opportunity that we feel the younger lower school students will begin to look forward to. There are formal students governments in the middle school and high school. These students have a variety of roles that include leading gatherings, like their fourth grade colleagues, and being a conduit of information with the adults in the division.
Middle school students are beginning to be independent enough to create their own initiatives. It is not surprising to find a middle school student, excited by some cause or another, gathering signatures or organizing friends. This happens in a formal way in the eighth grade through their annual social justice project. Students become involved in a series of social justice initiatives and are tasked with leading a community service day where they teacher their schoolmates about these issues.
High school students continue in this vein, often leading community wide-efforts to address local and global issues. Last month’s Coffee House raised money for an organization called Invisible Children. This project began as part of the eighth grade social justice efforts and continued into high school for a number of students. Several other students continue to work as a group, raising awareness and money for a number of causes/issues. Currently they are publicizing the plight of those affected by the famine in Somalia through a series of educational opportunities and a series of “Un-Bake Sales.”
There are so many opportunities to develop leadership skills as a member of one of our many athletic teams or as a cast member in a play or musical. Often the leaders in these situations are not the students who play the most or have the most lines.
On a slightly larger scale, a group of high school students have organized a daylong series of workshops and events focused on International Anti-Corruption Day. These students will lead all of the high school students in this examination of a global issue. On a still larger scale, seven high school students joined several thousand of their independent school colleagues at the National Association of Independent School’s Student Diversity Leadership Conference, a three day gathering in Philadelphia. At the end of the conference our students, joined by a number of students from other downtown schools, led eight LREI teachers, and a number of other educators, in a discussion of diversity, student life and a variety of associated topics. If last year is a guide, they will lead a similar conversation with the high school student body and faculty.
These are but a few of the formal and informal student leadership opportunities available at LREI, and all come along with many opportunities for our students to also learn good “followership” skills. These rich opportunities, the experiences of the students in them and the dynamic tension between leaders and followers are additional components of our progressive program.
Phil
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On the subject of “followership” skills, I’m reminded of Derek Siver‘s engaging TedTalk on this subject and its interdependency with leadership. take a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXMnDG3QzxE