How Teachers Provide Leadership in Education
Can teachers use curriculum to train your children as future pillars of the community? What other ways can you develop your children to become leaders in the future? The first thing to do is to change your own education paradigm.
“Why is there a need to change from your paradigm right now?”
Most of us grew up in a public or private school, which can be likened to a factory. All the students come to the factory or the school. They start in kindergarten and move on to first grade, down the conveyor belt. At each stage of the conveyor belt (or grade level), the student learns the exact same information as everyone else. The students are told what to think. Even though the school may be using tools like classics, the school’s approach to education only teaches students “what to think”.
This type of spoon-feeding or force-feeding teaching is evident in most schools. I don’t think it’s wrong, but it doesn’t accomplish the goal of educating children for the future as leaders. Here’s an example. First, you listen to a lecture. Then your kids start thinking about the what they’ve read and listened. After that, there is a quiz to ascertain if your child knows what the educator believes on these lectures . . . not what your child is “thinking” in these lectures. As said well by John Gatto below.
After you fall into the habit of accepting what other people tell you to think, you lose the power to think for yourself. John Taylor Gatto, A Different Teacher, 2002
When you are continually being force-fed with information, you start to become dependent and have difficulty in thinking for yourself. To become future leaders, it is important to modify your education paradigm that you use with your children.
Do you see education as teachers having textbooks for every subject out there? If you do, then you are gearing your kids to become followers, not leaders. Everybody thinks that people don’t think enough, so they depend on the books to teach them. Just by depending on the author’s conclusions, your children become only good in following; they “learn what to think” kind of people.
Stop and think for a while. Schoolbooks offer questions. If your child can answer them, he can go on to the next grade level or conveyor belt station. These types of learning do not promote thinking outside the answers. You become highly trained but not highly educated.
A different method is leadership education, especially in homeschool curriculum. It teaches you “how to think” instead of just “what to think”. Your children should be able to finish schooling and be able to think on their own. Changing to another educational curriculum can be a major life-changer. Here are some ways to set a good foundation for this type of leadership education approach.
As you develop your children to think, you may see some changes happening in your household This new type of education involves the whole family and binds them together so it takes a little time of adjustment. It may first take a toll on the parent because all the effort begins from you. It’s not as easy as handing them books and telling them to start learning and thinking. Those textbooks only serve to teach them “what to think”, not prepare them “how to think” for themselves.
Where should you start? Begin by reading a classic. That is one way to start your learning as a parent or teacher. Find something that interests you. A young adult classics list is a good way to find one if you are not sure what to read. After reading one, get another. Continue doing this four or five times. This is a good way to begin your own education.
As your children see their parents studying and learning, they begin to have a different idea of what education is all about. You will be excited about what you are learning and want to share it with your own children.
After reading four or five classics, get another one to introduce the element of writing. While reading this classic, you should start a reading journal. Put your thoughts on paper about what you’ve read. Be sure to share it with someone so it becomes a lesson well learned.
Next, read aloud an interesting classic with your children. Choose wisely as you make it enjoyable and fun for your kids. Read to them anything interesting, if they’re just starting out with classics. When your kids are ready, have them keep their own reading journals. After this, you can have an engage in an interactive discussion on the classics that they’ve read or heard.
Francis Bacon said, “Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” Reading, writing and discussing is foundational to developing students who think for themselves. If you want your children to be leaders, they must think on their own and classics are the best place to start.
Kerry Beck has been featured in magazines and radio shows and would like you to discover the best leadership education homeschool curriculum by giving you a free mini-course, ” What Is Leadership In Education “?