One of my sincerest hopes for students of Redeemer Classical School is that they would be leaders in their communities, now and in the future — wherever God leads them. Whether it is in college, career, at home, or in their neighborhoods, I want our students to be shining examples of wisdom and virtue. I hope their lives will be characterized by respect, critical thinking, honest dialogue, and a love of truth, goodness, and beauty. More than that, I want our students to inspire others to cultivate these same habits of head and heart. With these aspirations in mind, we have created a leadership class that all our Ninth grade students will take: Leadership for Life.
Over the course of the year students will not only explore what leadership is and what defines good leaders, but also put those lessons to the test in a practical setting. Our first semester will focus on the THEORETICAL by means of a book study. The class will read and discuss together Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney. I’ve used this book for many years with students and I think the leadership values it promotes — self-awareness, ingenuity, love, and heroism — are crucial for students to consider as they begin their journey to leading well.
“There’s no sure-fire leadership formula, because no formula is humanproof. It’s not a tragedy to fall; the tragedy is not accepting and understanding one’s missteps, learning from them, picking oneself up, and moving forward again a wiser, better leader.” (Lowney)
In the second semester students will be given the opportunity to develop the skills discussed in the first half of the year as they design and implement a real-life SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT together. Students will: (1) come up with the idea for their service project, (2) plan out the necessary steps, and (3) work to bring the project to fruition. Throughout the process students will divvy up responsibilities so they each have a chance to practice their leadership skills in a given area.
The success or failure of the project will be completely in the hands of the class. I will act as a facilitator only — helping them to think through the plan and to meet their goals — so the ultimate responsibility will lie with the students. While this may mean that the project could fail miserably, we believe this will provide the best learning experience. Not only does this allow students to take ownership of the undertaking, it also affords them unique life lessons — whether they succeed or fail — within a relatively low-stake environment.
As the teacher of this course (for the foreseeable future), I’m excited to dive into this study with students and to guide them through their exploration of leadership and their service learning project. I can’t wait to see how our Freshmen grow and develop through this process, and what kind of leaders they will become.