By Natalie Simms, gcLi Social Media Director, LL ‘12, gcLi Scholar ‘15, 3rd grade Teacher at Brownell Talbot School, Omaha (NE)
More often than not, when I explain that leadership can be taught to elementary-level students, I’m met with a look of disbelief. When the word “leadership” is mentioned, too often, the concrete vision of one physically leading others comes to mind. And true, elementary students are rarely organizing a march across the playground to demand more outdoor time. They rarely deliver an impassioned speech to a group of followers on an issue they care deeply about. But why? Elementary students are capable of so much more than they are given credit for. As educators, we expect these same elementary students to become middle school and upper school students who somehow innately know and understand how to effectively and positively lead others. But how can we expect that from them when they aren’t provided the opportunities to practice leading?
Dr. Immordino Yang explains that incorporating students’ interests when planning lessons results in the most robust learning experiences. While planning upcoming writing and social studies units, my teaching partner, Karin Rohrig, and I happened upon resources from The Mountain Teacher and Kiki’s Classroom. Through our planning discussions, we discovered an opportunity to create an experience for our students that would combine a “Cat vs. Dog” opinion writing unit from The Mountain Teacher and a “Road to the White House” social studies unit from Kiki’s Classroom. Suddenly, what began as separate units became an integrated project in leadership.
We asked our third graders to research “best candidates” for a School Pet based upon its attributes. The candidates? Cats and dogs up for adoption at our local Humane Society. Instantly, our elementary students were participating in lively discussions about their opinions on who would make the best School Pet. It was during these sessions that Karin and I realized the simple metaphor that was taking place in our classrooms: our students were participating in the exact same process that adults engage in during a Presidential election in the United States. And so, with wild abandon, we let them become campaign managers for their candidates of choice and enlisted the help of our school and local communities.
Our third graders visited the Humane Society, armed with research questions focused solely on how each animal would enhance our school community. They understood that this was an important matter, and simply being cute just wouldn’t suffice. They walked through the belly of the Humane Society, learning about costs of care, compatibility with other animals, and the adoption process. They asked about how to ensure animals remain happy in their new home, how to best care for a new furry friend, or how to aid in the animal’s transition from shelter to a permanent home. Once filled with answers to their questions, our students returned to school to plan for primaries, caucuses, and conventions with other classes and grade levels. Candidates were whittled down to one dog and one cat. (You guessed it: they represented the two major political parties in the United States). But of course, those students who felt that a fish or hamster would be the best school pet were honored. (And you may have guessed that these candidates represented the less popular, but equally important, political parties).
You see, as Chris Lowney mentions in his book Heroic Leadership, “you cannot motivate anyone to do a good job unless he has a good job to do.” Giving elementary students jobs that matter, that make a difference, ignites the leadership skills that we so often ask of them in middle and upper school.
Our third graders were provided the opportunity to research, form an opinion, and share their voice with the community. They were able to make the connection between what they were doing in the classroom and the current events about our nation’s election process broadcasted on the news. They were given a good job to do and understood that their opinions and research were important to our school constituents. As young children often do, they rose to a high level of expectation and surpassed our wildest dreams of setting an example of responsible and ethical civic engagement.
Throughout this unit, our students engaged in:
- critical thinking
- active listening
- researching and analyzing credible sources
- respectfully disagreeing
- using facts and evidence to support opinions
- respecting others’ boundaries
- seeking information to learn from other perspectives
- communicating honestly and transparently
- collaborating with those different from themselves
Now, because we simply provided our students this space, their work today means that further development of their leadership skills in Middle and Upper School will be rewarding, to say the least.
Elementary students can be explicitly taught leadership. To do this, educators need to give students a good job to do, engage student interests, and allow students opportunities to practice leading in a safe space.
Mrs. Natalie Simms is a third-grade teacher with experience that spans both public and independent schools in New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, California, Oregon, and Nebraska. Throughout her career, she has taught kindergarten and second through fifth grades. Natalie has her M.Ed and Master Reading Teacher certification from Southern Methodist University and a B.S. in Elementary Education and a B.A. in Math/Science from Rowan University. Currently, she is working toward an Ed.D. in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Creighton University. Natalie is passionate about helping elementary students realize their potential in leadership and as agents of change in their community. She is a Girls on the Run coach and teaches leadership enrichment classes to fifth and sixth graders.. She has presented at national conferences on the pedagogy of leadership and how it has been incorporated into projects within her classroom. One of these presentations was the Symposium in Pedagogy of Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. In her spare time, Natalie enjoys traveling with her husband Tom, running, and reading.