Leadership and responsibility can come at a young age with the proper training and encouragement.
Teachers and students at George G. Blaisdell Elementary School will demonstrate how children are evolving into leaders when they conduct their second Leadership Day on March 2 at the campus.
Kindergarten teacher Jennifer Kwiatkowski said Pre-K and first-grade students will participate in two assemblies during which they will not only lead the events, but will also entertain their parents and other guests. She said the first assembly from 10 to 10:45 a.m. will be led by children in Pre-K and first-grade classes. A similar event from 2 to 2:45 p.m. will be led by kindergarten and second-grade students.
Kwiatkowski said the short assemblies will give an overview of The Leader in Me program followed by classroom visits to see how the initiative is being infused into the students’ daily lives.
Administrators and teachers at GGB and School Street Elementary, under the direction of Superintendent Katharine Pude, had embarked on the new initiative last year as an introduction to personal leadership. The initiative is based on author Stephen Covey’s self-help book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
Kwiatkowski said the teachers and administrators had attended a Leader in Me Symposium in Columbus, Ohio, three years ago, to learn the basics of the program. They have received training each year since from facilitators with the program.
The principles taught to children in the school-wide project are leadership, accountability, adaptability, initiative, responsibility, problem-solving, communication, creativity and teamwork.
Kwiatkowski had noted the initiative believes all students have the capacity to lead in their own lives and affect those around them by making positive choices. The initiative also provides students with activities to help them learn practical character and life skills that will lead to those positive choices. Kwiatkowski said the upcoming event will begin with a gathering of children and adults in the gymnasium.
“There will be a little assembly in the beginning where the kids will talk with the guests and parents about the seven habits and how we implement them at school and changes we’ve made,” Kwiatkowski further explained. “Then the parents will be dismissed to go up to the classrooms where they’ll get to observe the seven habits in action.”
She noted the young students will take the initiative by leading the adults to the classrooms.
“The parents will observe and see the seven habits in action and (as the children) lead different events,” she added.
Kwiatkowski said the hope this year is that a number of the positive habits will be taken home by parents and guardians.
“This is also Dr. Seuss’ birthday, so we’re doing our leadership day on that day,” Kwiatkowski continued.
Along those lines, a school-wide goal in conjunction with the initiative will ask all students on campus to read a total of 15,000 books by the end of April.
