Intentional

Leadership and Youth - a core class for success

Lesson		Description	Responsibility	Due
Believe in Yourself	Introduction	Defining leadership and the role that leaders play	Reflect on current definition of leadership	End of class
	History of You	Understanding your journey and where you’ve come from	Create a “life map” explaining your journey thus far.	In class
	Define yourself	Everyone is trying to put you in a box, where do you fit in?	Reflect on how your definition. 1-2 page reflection	Next Class
	Through these Eyes	How others see you. Understanding feedback & impressions (Johari Window)	Write your impression of two of your classmates include both good observations and areas that need improvement.	Next class
	Integrity	The value of being authentic and genuine in all your interactions	Interview 3 people. Ask them to define integrity and authenticity.	Next class
	Values	What is most important to you?	Create an art piece that displays your values, be ready to present.	Next class
Believe in Others	Values in Action	Presenting your values to the class	Read Chapter on Discrimination, Writ 1-2 page reflection.	Next Class
	Defining Others – judgment, discrimination, & equality	Watch MILK – the story of Harvey Milk. Discuss rights, passing judgment, etc.	Reflect on a time when you felt discrimination. 3-5 pages	Next class
	Service as a gateway	Putting aside our fears and judgment service open opportunity	Plan a service project that will benefit our community	Next class
	Self Discovery through Self sacrifice	Share your project,  develop it with your peers	Find a discussion group and brainstorm improvements to SP	Next Class
	Servant Leader	The value of serving your team to be a better leader	Continue to make plans for your service project
	The value of a follower	Learning to follow.	Begin project execution. Groups of 3-6 peers.
	Dynamics of the group	Relational Leadership & Group Development	Complete group service project. Prepare Presentation on group service project	Next Class
	Strategies for Change	Models for empowerment, assessment, and growth. Group Presentations	Complete self & group assessment	Next Class
Believe in Tomorrow	Development of Leadership	Finding your leadership identity	Reflect on your stages of development as a leader 1-3 pp.	Next Class
	Vision	Define your vision and role as a leader.	Research contemporary leaders that share your vision	Next Class
	Leadership in Action	Leadership Heroes  combining vision, values, experience and action	Researching Leadership Plan
	Keep going	Leadership Plan & Tools for motivation and continued service	Final project – Leadership Plan	Last day  of  term

The vision of the plan

Young people have inspired me from the very beginning of my experiences. I have marveled at the influence that my peers have had on others. I have been taken aback by the ease with which some are able to interact with and persuade others. I have been fascinated by the different personalities that this world takes and how my peers fall into those various categories. I have often seen myself as keenly aware of humanity and the needs and thoughts of those around me. Leadership is about caring and teaching young people to care is all about breaking down their barriers.

            Teaching a class on leadership with unlimited funds, but limited to an environment and a schedule isn’t conducive to creating that ultimate leadership environment. In all reality a few books, a means to display videos, and play music are means enough to inspire. The inspiration that is essential in this classroom comes from reflection, questioning norms, and a willingness to commit. Young people need to feel safe. They need to feel that if they are going to allow themselves to be vulnerable that they are not alone and that their feelings will be protected. I as the instructor will have to create that environment from day one. I will have to create a place that allows these young people to be authentic as I ask them to give so much of who they are to this class.

 Passion and vision are the things that inspire leaders from day to day, helping these young people find their passion will also be essential but, again, in order to do so it will be critical that they learn to understand themselves. This, in and of itself, is a neigh impossible task with such a volatile age group. Young people are tender and changing in ways that they don’t understand themselves. So often, young people are lumped into this group or that group. High school is defined by the social network. Either you’re a jock or a prep or nerd or band geek. Teaching young people that they can independently define themselves however they wish will help them to discover a sense of purpose and a place in the world. Allowing them to find their strengths through strengths testing will open their eyes to possibilities that they may not have seen before.

Helping young people to come to certain conclusions about the universality of their experience might help them to see beyond their hormonal and sometimes petty crisis’s. Which is why serving others is so drastically important. Ghandi said that, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” I believe that as students devise a plan to help others and learn to solve the problems that may arise using skills that they will have themselves studied they will begin to understand the interconnectedness of humanity and the real aim of leadership. It is for this reason that I will spend such a significant amount of time on this portion of the lesson model. Service is what allows students to see the importance of groups, organizations, and forgetting selfish needs in the interest of improved leadership, the ultimate objective, and the aims of the group as a whole.

Teaching leadership is like teaching music, theatre, or dance. You have to do it. You have to experience leadership. You have to see how Maslow’s Theory of Needs plays out in a group setting. You have to see Relational Leadership as it is applied. You have to show and observe Behavioral leadership models. Teaching these numerous styles does little if it can’t then be put in to application or studied. Awareness of the existence of multiple models is like teaching for an exam, you “get” the material until the test is over then you forget it. The great thing about experiential classrooms like music, theatre, and dance is that you experience the lesson, you feel it, it becomes a part of you physical, emotional, a chronological memory. These are lessons that you cannot forget. In some way, you will always remember experiential learning. Therefore bringing models and theories into a classroom, especially of high schoolers must be done through the experience and application. The model and the experience need to dissected and analyzed by the students. The problem, the question is presented by the instructor and the students set about to answer that question, all the while conscious of their own actions, understanding their motivation. This is extremely difficult to master. You almost have to limit the amount of material presented in order to make this happen effectively. As an instructor I may not present all of the resources that I am drawing from, the students will not understand that I am drawing heavily from the Relational Leadership Model when ask them to explore their own story as they seek to understand themselves. At this stage it is more important that the concepts be taught rather than the models themselves.

My classroom would be a nurturing environment in order to draw upon the ideals of embracing diversity. It would be bright and full of light. The classroom would be filled with vivid colors, images that portray diversity, acceptance, leadership, service, integrity, and honesty. I would use words and portraits to show where my values lie. I would use music that inspires greatness. I would be continuously open and honest with the students willing to share everything that I ask of them. I would set my expectations clearly, yet allow the students to set their consequences.

As we complete the course and students are able to apply lessons learned from their group experience, where they were able to put into play principles of Organization Leadership, into the culmination of the course, the development of their vision. I will rely on the Social Change model to permit the students to dream and develop their ideals further. I am a firm believer that if you can imagine it then you can achieve it. Using the precious elements of empowerment from the Social Change model I will turn to the students and encourage them to create opportunities to instill lasting change in their environment. This is where endless funds will come into play. Is a student dreams up a project to then through careful considerations we will fund their dreams for social change.

I believe that the power to change this world lies in the hands of our youngest and brightest. This classroom would be a model for reversing the trend. Perhaps leaning upon the tools of those that have gone before me I would create a new model of leadership. I believe that young people have the capacity to dream and imagine things in a way that we, the older generations have lost. As I give them the tools and empower them to unleash their collective genius I will encourage them to seek out problems that they are passionate about and find solutions to those problems. Find solutions that have never been dreamt of before and instead of accepting the future that those that have gone before have created for them I will do all that I can to empower these young people to build their own future. I will work with them, administrators, community leaders, legislators, business partners and many more to empower these young people to turn to the generation before and say “here is what the world could be, will you build it for me so that when I arrive, I’m not stuck fixing your problems and can instead build the future that my children hand to me.”

Child-Driven Education