Students are the architects of the future world. Today the time we are
investing in our human resource will define our future of tomorrow as a nation,
as a world and as a planet.
To give the best to the future generation, we need to inculcate the best
of seeds in them. The young generation are like wet cement and so if we show
them the worst things, they get set fast. To have a stronger human race, its
most important to teach them what is best for them.
In today’s scenario life skills have become an important part of
learning. Small children are committing suicide since they are not able to
balance their emotions. Life is for once and a lifetime is the time gifted by
god to us to explore and prove something back. Small failures are making the
people leave their life and families, the death of an individual is the end of
many connected to the individual. To make the person understand the importance
of life and to provide a better understanding of life and alternatives to solve
the problems in a much easier form, we need to teach leadership skills to the
children.
It is very important to understand the fact that the teaching staff and
the people directly in contact with the children whether the parents or the
other family members are equally responsible for this. It is neither the responsibility
of parent nor completely of the teacher. The educational institution should
maintain a complete transparency about the child and the teachers must maintain
a perfect relation with the parents. Things should happen parallelly for the
overall development of the child. These days the parents have issues of
misunderstanding and emotional imbalances, such parents must understand the
effect on the child.
A child learns what is happening around him/her. It is the
responsibility of the parents to provide the basic amenities including a proper
environment. A worst environment can hinder the growth of the child, after that
planning a better school might not help the child. A good school should provide
good education with proper set of teachers and qualities of leadership, life
skills and empathy.
Leadership skills are very
helpful for students to achieve their dreams and goals. Leadership teaches us,
what to learn, what needs to follow, what is important in certain situations
and time etc.
For example, if a teacher asked the question from the whole class, but
only one student is answering, and he/she doesn’t know is it right or wrong,
but he/she answers, that is leadership. That is the confidence of the inside
student. And I think, we all must support unique potentials and creativity hidden
beneath every person. It’s not good to criticize the creativity and uniqueness
of any students. That’s leadership.
Leadership provides students the ability to win the game. And that
mindset enables them to play to win and never quit.
We have seen cases of criticism and negative reinforcement working
wonders for few, but it might not work well in all the cases when compared to
leadership traits.
To handle daily life challenges, we need leadership skills to find
opportunities in a difficult situation. Leadership provides new
opportunities to others such as jobs and income opportunities. Leadership is
about leading by example. To achieve daily life goals even to-do lists, we all must
depend on our leadership skills. Leaders have their own logic; they do not
follow the crowd. A child should be able to think out of box in case of any
problems. We should teach them that it is good to try than simply giving up.
Leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards
achieving a common goal. A leader or a potential leader should have some
acceptable qualities. Such qualities are called leadership traits.
Traits of an effective leader:
Now the big question is how to promote leadership qualities in school
children?
It is rightly said that ‘Great leaders are made, not born’!
Kouzes and Posner’s research into leadership that was done for the book “The
leadership challenge” have featured 5 qualities.
The 5 qualities include:
- Honest
- Forward-looking
- Competent
- Inspiring
- Intelligent
Inculcating the correct leadership traits and imbibing the same in
children requires an exemplary approach by parents and teachers. And it should
be hand in hand. Some of the virtues and directives in leaders which can be
developed at an early stage of life are:
Integrity: Integrity is knowing and doing what is right,
even when no one is watching. Sharing stories and setting an example by being a
role model yourself is the best way to do it. Mind it, the children learn from parents
and teachers and to be their role model means to be true first. Later on,
judging and blaming a school or the other aspects is not the right way of
dealing problems. Teachers and parents should speak constantly with the
children about various things, the way you sow the ideology in their growing
brains, the same can we reap back from them, in the form of they being the architect
of the society, nation and world as a whole.
Examples: Teachers can share stories with students through folklores, e-books or
story books during library sessions where in the concept of integrity can be
presented and promoted.
Teachers and parents can also make up own stories that encourage them to
always tell the truth no matter what.
It is also very important since by watching in daily life kids mind
allows them to appreciate and respect others.
India is a spiritual land, the land with many diversities. We are still
united!! We can use many such facts, stories, tales to teach our future which needs
our involvement. A child is a long-term project full of life, emotions and
love, it depends upon the parent, the social factors, laws of the country,
climate conditions etc. how he or she grows? Few things are in our hand and
rest we cannot change, things we can change should be our priority.
Courage: Any expression of courage or even the
slightest hint of courage displayed by the child should be noticed and praised.
Motivation, positive reinforcement and appreciation goes a long way in
nurturing virtues or well being and self esteem in young minds.
Examples: Role play, dramatization and story
telling can be good tools to teach courage.
Independent and Creative thinking:
Conversations and open-ended question asking sessions are helpful in
encouraging children to start thinking in an innovative manner and present
better solutions. After getting the obvious answers from the child, asking
question like why, what, would have happened if, how did you think or feel;
encourage them to think creatively. As elders we should always understand the
fact that the answers can be right or at times wrong, firstly they should
receive appreciation for trying. Secondly encouragement and motivation for
thinking out of box or for promoting divergent thinking among the children.
Discipline: Discipline is helping
children develop self-control. In this
world of instant self-gratification, it is the ability to wait, to think before
acting and to understand potential consequences of their actions. As they grow,
they integrate these limits into their own self-discipline.
Children must feel free to share thoughts, problems, they should be
given chances to make choices. Being parents or teachers, we should let them do
mistakes so that, they can learn what is right and what is the difference between
being right and wrong. Always teaching them these are right things, and these
are wrong verbally, makes them impatient and brings a feeling of aggressiveness.
The anomalies, 'a perfect child' or 'a perfect parent' do not really exist.
Scolding your child can hurt him/her beyond comprehension. And, while some
children may express their displeasure at being scolded, other may not although
they may feel hurt emotionally.
Children are great imitators. For example, if you shout, they will shout
back; if you scold them, they will do the same to someone else. Since your
children will grow up to emulate your actions, it would be wise to do what you
want them to. Learning from mistakes will help them to understand things
better and such learning by doing will last longer.
Self-belief and confidence: Inculcating
virtues which lead to a higher confidence quotient and development of self-belief
help children use their best of abilities and ideas to a greater degree.
Example: This is my personal experience with
my 4 years old, she talks about big things and about reaching other planets and
solar systems, she desires to be an astronaut. Being an elder, parent or
teacher with such children, we must not laugh or take it as a joke. Encourage,
praise, discuss on the strength of the child. Positive appreciation of
capabilities helps in developing a more confident attitude which says, ‘I can
do it’? I keep telling my kids at school and my own daughter ‘never ever give
up’.
As parent and teacher its our responsibility to make the child
understand his/her own potentialities. The process of talking and involving in
the smallest aspect of your child make them feel that they are accepted, and
their parents will be with them always to help. The process should continue and
should be consistent or the child gets neglected. Beat the iron when its hot,
give them shape from childhood and see the results when they keep growing. Do
alternate adjustments as parents and teachers and help them reach their goals.
Responsibility: Leadership is all about
ownership, even if caught in the wrong form of doing. It also means knowing
when you made a mistake and admitting to your mistakes. This responsibility can
be encouraged in a child.
Example: A child after making mistakes blames
others or gives excuses. As a teacher we must give an opportunity to let
him/her know that its ok to make mistakes and encourage them to assume
responsibility. Encourage the children to speak always the truth. Appreciate those
who admitted the mistakes and a point to be noted here is to even understand
whether the child repeats the same mistake again and again. Such trait of the
child should be observed and rectified slowly.
Planning: Given a large task to do, a child can
get easily overwhelmed. However, by showing a child how to break it into
smaller segments and planning each one out, teacher can build their
self-confidence and abilities to take up the complex tasks further in life.
Comparative studies of life with such complex issues and the lesson of
proper planning and dividing the complexities into smaller chunks, will make
the children understand the ways to find alternatives and this will lead to having
a strong ambition towards their goals and life as well.
The future generation is being paralyzed and made handicapped by parents
with too much of love and spoon feeding. Learning should be by doing, children
should enjoy the process of exploring and should feel the pain at times to
understand the fact that nothing is so easy in life. They should understand
that ‘if there is no pain there is no gain’.
We should not provide everything to them so easily, let it be toys or
whatever they ask for. They should understand the simple logic that what my
parents want from me? What I should do to achieve that as a gift from them. Anything
that we get easily won’t last for long, such over cared children when go out in
the society give up faster. They get disappointed soon and feel worthless.
As a gardener trims the branches and checks the weeds growing in the
garden, we as parents and teachers need to put a constant check on things. A child must be pruned of his/her baser instincts and
trained in a proper manner in order to make him/her beneficial for the society.
If proper and timely attention is not paid to the process of grooming of the
youth, it can turn haywire and become unproductive.
