Leadership Training for Children

Children should not only learn about the theory of knowledge in the classroom. They should also know how to appreciate and respect others who have different perspective that they have. That is why the children need to get basic leadership training so they can develop their  potential of leadership skill. They need to be involved in the activities that help them not only to identify their strength and weakness but also to teach them how to develop organizational skill and work with others. Later in the future, it will be great investment for them.

My students got this topic for their learning. They learnt that leader is different with boss. They act very differently in a number of ways. Their skill in building relationship, the way they make decision will make the differences clearer. As for the example, if there is a damage the boss blames others but a leader work to help repair it and understand what happened as a reflection that it will not happen again in the future. I ever met this kind of person who always said “Don’t blame me,” “I don’t know,” and “It’s your fault and your responsibility” whenever the problem came out. Those words came out from her mouth then made me think: yes, she is the boss but she is not a leader. She definitely lost my respect as her behavior do not show what the leader is like. Based on this experience it is really important to give understanding to the students about how to be good leader to gain the respect from the others. They have to give up their ego by not thinking that they are always right, not always wanting to do everything in their way only, etc.

For the leadership training, there were some games and activities to train the students the leadership skill. They were divided into two activities: indoor and outdoor. In indoor, my students played  blind walk, taking a cap, etc. For outdoor, they had flying fox, leaking pipe, etc. They like to play those games. But the most important thing was they learnt about team-working, negotiating, and planning.  

one of the leadership games in the classroom

nicholas was walking on the rope under the rain

"Leadership is an action, not a position." 

(Donald McGannon)