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In Context

Preparing Children to Lead and Follow

George S. Morrison

In fact, American society expects that everybody will be a leader in some way or another throughout their lifetime. The ideals of strong leadership run deep in our history and in contemporary society. The tools to support our quest to become a leader are all around us.

A visit to your favorite bookstore, either in person or via the internet, reveals that the store displays and on-line shelves are loaded with books about how to be a leader. Well, not just a leader, but a great leader. The message today is that if you are not a leader, then you are, well, a follower. So much of our culture is focused on leading that nobody wants to be a follower. Although we know that following and being a follower are important and both have their place in our personal and professional lives, our primary focus is on learning how to be a leader.

In the quest to be a leader, help is only a book away. There is a book for any kind of leader you want to be. Choose your leadership style and match it to a book.

For those who want to be an aggressive leader, there is Lead Or Get Off The Pot!: The Seven Secrets of a Self-Made Leader.

For the person who wants to lead with ethics, there is Ethics: The Heart of Leadership.

For the extreme sports enthusiast there is The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership.

Don't like the extremes of leading? Well, there is a book for you too! Try Leading People from the Middle: The Universal Mission of Heart and Mind. And for those of you who like to model your leadership style after that of contemporary leaders, there are many to pick from, including: The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, and The Rumsfeld Way.

In other words, there is a leadership book for every taste and situation.

Many of the more popular leadership styles however, seem more suited to the corporate world than the school house and playground. Collaborative leadership is the leadership style of choice for many teachers. Coach and mentor are two of the most popular metaphors for leading in the school house. Coaches and mentors make informed suggestions, offer guidance, motivate and encourage achievement, and share in the success of those they coach and mentor.

However, it is doubtful that you can assume the leadership style of your choice by reading a book. While you can learn a lot about leadership by reading about it, you have to practice it, and that takes a lot of trial and error and on-the job training.

Just as you can't learn to golf or fly fish by reading about it, so it is with leadership. Leadership consists of many skills and as we know, leaning new skills takes a lot of effort and work. Leadership needs to be taught, practiced, and developed.

Many of the skills involved in effective leadership are associated with working with and getting along with others. Private and public schools, faith-based organizations, and homes need to teach children the essentials of leadership starting at an early age. Teaching academic subjects should only be part of the curriculum, as all Montessorians know.

How early should we begin teaching social skills? Birth seems about the right time to me. Of course you can also argue, and I would not disagree with you, that educating parents about how to help their children get along with others is a good idea too.

As we know, childhood is the best time to learn many new skills, including how to lead and get along with others. It is in the early years that many anti-social behaviors are learned and ingrained in habits and personality. We can identify anti-social behavior in children as young as 3-4 years old. Some symptoms of anti-social behavior include: not being able to stay on task; general aggressive behavior; using aggression to solve problems; inability to follow directions; inability to control behavior; blaming others; and insensitivity to the effects of behavior on others.

Experienced teachers know that children do not "grow out of" anti-social behavior. It takes a lot of hard work and money to remedy anti-social behavior in young children. It costs even more to remedy anti-social behaviors in youth and adults.

Eliminate the conditions that promote anti-social behavior in homes, schools and society. A promising beginning would be to eliminate the achievement gaps between socioeconomic groups. In addition to achievement gaps between socioeconomic classes, there is also an anti-social gap. "Children of lower social classes exhibit more antisocial behavior than children of higher social classes, both in early childhood and in adolescence." We know that teachers and learning materials are unequally distributed in schools according to socioeconomic status. Making sure that all children get well-trained and efficacious teachers and sufficient and appropriate learning materials would be a giant step toward closing the achievement and anti-social gaps.
Directly teach children the social skills they need to be successful in school and life. These skills include how to make and keep friends, how to get along with others, and how to solve problems without aggression.
Provide children with the readiness skills they need for success in school before they come to school and experience failure. Lack of school readiness probably contributes as much as anything else to children's anti-social behavior.

There are many other practical and immediate programs we can add to the above list. In addition, I'm sure all Montessorians can think of things they can do in their programs to assure that all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, and language have the opportunity to learn and develop the skills they need to be leaders for today and tomorrow.

If we don't act now we may end up asking ourselves, "Where have all the leaders gone?"

George S. Morrison is the author of Early Childhood Education Today and is the Velma E. Schmidt Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of North Texas.

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