|
How Teachers Provide Leadership In Education |
By:
Kerry Beck |
|
|
Is it possible for teachers to guide leaders in instruction? Can they encourage your children to become leaders in the future? Well, the first thing you can do in forming your children to become leaders is changing your own education paradigm.
"Why is there a need to change from your paradigm right now?"
The private or public schools that you attended can be compared to a manufacturing plant. The average schooler goes to this plant or education facility. It begins in kindergarten and then goes up to each level like moving up to first grade. Likened to a conveyor belt, your child takes in the same subject matter as every student in that grade level on the conveyor belt. Your kids are taught only "what to think". Even if classics are used, the way education occurs in schools is to think what others are telling you 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.
Ponder for a moment. Textbooks give students questions to answer. If the student can answer the chosen questions on a test, he can move on to the next piece of information. Textbooks do not encourage students to think outside of the answers in the teacher's manual. This model has provided our society with highly trained, but poorly educated graduates.
Leadership education takes a different approach to curriculum. One of the essential elements of leadership education is teaching how to think. I don't think your children should complete their education and not know how to think on their own. Shifting your educational model from "what to think" to "how to think" can be a major change in your life. Below are some practical ways to set a foundation for this type of education by starting with yourself.
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.
When children see you, their parents, learning and studying, they'll have a new outlook on what learning is like. They will get as excited as you are about what you are learning. With that said, share with your children what you are learning right now.
After you finish five classics, read another one and add a writing activity. As you read this classic, keep a reading journal. In your reading journal, write down your thoughts about the story. Share your thoughts with someone else.
Now, it is time to start with your own students. Choose a classic to read aloud together. The first classic you read together should be purely for enjoyment. If your students have never enjoyed classics, you may need to read a few more before moving to journaling and discussing. Once you think your children are ready, ask them to journal about the story after you finish reading each day. Then, discuss what the students wrote in their journal.
Francis Bacon said, "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." Three things work well for growing up children who can think on their own. These include reading, writing and Socratic discussion. Classics become the best way to instill these fundamentals of leadership learning.
Kerry Beck has been featured in magazines and radio shows and would like you to discover the superb leadership education homeschool curriculum by offering you a special report, " What Is Leadership In Education "? Get your own completely unique content version of this article.
|
|
Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article56109.html |
|
|
|
|
|
