The Leadership Development Program emerged based on the work of Dr. Lillian Katz on mixed-age classes and a strong belief that schools should teach real-life skills, not simply isolated academic concepts. Our middle school volunteers, who are gaining leadership skills by leading preschoolers, motivated us. We have seen so much growth with our middle school volunteers and wanted to see similar growth with our preschoolers.
The staff made a very detailed list of clearly defined *tasks for our little leaders. Each task focused on leadership skills (as well as academic skills) we would like to nurture in our children. The core leadership skills were responsibility, being a good example, confidence, communication skills, empathy and patience.
We made some very deliberate, thoughtful decisions. For one, we decided early on that rather than have one isolated leader, we would have a small group of leaders--we felt it would be important to allow children to support, inspire, and motivate each other through their leadership development. We gave a lot of thought to how leaders should be initially grouped. We tried to group leaders together that would be able to support each other, but we consciously separated pairs of friends where one is the leader and the other the follower. We did this so that the follower friend would have the opportunity to lead (and hopefully feel the success of being a leader and carry these skills forward). We also ensured that our preschoolers would continue with their normally scheduled activities, academic and extracurricular. We wanted this program to complement, not replace, the regular curriculum. Furthermore, it was important to us that the leadership skills involve emotional and social skills that are important in kindergarten readiness. We kept leader groups small to allow for plenty of teacher observation.
Leaders were given special badges to wear that read “Leader” the morning they arrived to school. It started the program on a good note. The children felt very important wearing their badges. The badges were a physical representation of the children’s internal emerging leadership skills.
The task list was made into a checklist. Teachers rated children on each task performed. Each child also had an anecdotal record of observations. Teachers made anecdotal observations each day.
We anticipated that not all the children would immediately adapt smoothly to this new situation and set of tasks. We prepared parents and ourselves. This has been a pattern in all of the summer enrichment activities, from karate to dance to field trips. When young children are faced with unfamiliar and unknown situations, it takes them time to adapt, especially if they perceive that they haven't yet mastered the skills necessary to succeed in the given situation. Once they master the skills, though, the feeling of success is tremendous and it teaches them that they can conquer the unknown. Repeated successes boost their self-esteem. My goal is that our children will eventually go into the real world with the ability to enter new situations with utmost confidence and the eagerness to learn new skills.
Three weeks in the program, we can safely say the results were glorious, and fascinating.
To be continued…
*An example task: doing a puzzle with a younger child using verbal instructions only. The leader-teacher must use verbal instructions only to communicate abstract ideas, which requires great mental effort: The leaders must visualize the puzzle pieces, rotate them in their head, and then find the vocabulary to communicate this to a younger child. The leader learns to remain patient, be empathetic, and communicate effectively. Leaders must also practice self-regulation by resisting the urge to just do the puzzle for the younger child rather than slowly walk them through it. The younger child looks up to the leader, giving the leader confidence and the younger child a role model. Having the support of the leader s/he also gets much less frustrated with his/her still developing visual-spatial reasoning skill (puzzles are sometimes difficult for adults!). The process is about teamwork and more enjoyable. The younger child is more likely to sit and work through the puzzle as a result, thereby increasing his/her attention span. It is a mutually beneficial experience.
