PSYCHOLOGY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING :: LEADERSHIP.

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:

1. Honest
2. Forward-looking
3. Competent
4. Inspiring
5. 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.