My third graders are beginning a project on leadership. Today, I posed them a question. "What does a leader do?" We set up a sentence that went, "A leader ________." Below the break are the answers:
A leader -
- does their job.
- is a good sport.
- listens (to the truth).
- follows the rules.
- respects the law (unless the law is wrong).
- does good stuff without being asked.
- is a good role model.
- helps others.
- gives their best effort.
- makes sure people don’t get hurt.
- inspires others.
- tricks bad guys into doing something good.
- treats others the way they want to be treated.
- serves others.
- helps/respects the environment.
- helps the world get better.
- gives homeless people money.
- fights off bullies.
- helps bad guys find the truth so they will stop being mean.
If our leaders would follow the advice of these third graders, our country would be in a much better place.
I wish that Obama and McCain would take a look at this list and see how their campaigns measure up. I think that in many ways, they measure up pretty well, but I think that we could ALL do better on some of these points.
At any rate, that's what they came up with. I didn't push them to answer the way that they did, that's just what they came up with. I'm proud of them. I like to think that someone is doing something right if the eight year olds at our school are coming up with a definition as eloquent, accurate, and simple as the one above.
Their next step will be to read a biography of a famous leader and eventually write and perform a monologue as that leader (I'm the drama teacher at our school). It will be interesting to see how the leaders they choose measure up to their definition.