Key takeaways
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Leadership skills are learned and cultivated over time. Although some personality traits lend themselves to leadership, 70% of leadership comes from experience, training, and practice.
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Leadership skills and opportunities in school should start early. Executive functioning skills develop in early childhood and overlap with the skills required for effective leadership.
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Student leadership should not be limited to assigned roles. All students should be taught skills through a balanced approach of instruction and practice.
The concept of student leadership might conjure images of students given adult responsibilities; armed with clipboards and badges, these ‘leaders’ simply mimic the adults around them in enforcing predetermined rules. However, modern student leadership is quite a different undertaking.
Student leadership supports students as they develop personal responsibility and agency. At the core of student leadership is the adult belief that children should be given opportunities to learn and practice the skills needed to lead themselves and others.
Why Early Student Leadership Matters
The human brain is an amazing organ. It controls billions of neurons and sends messages throughout the body at over 250 miles per hour. Our brains are designed to adapt as we learn, and children can learn faster because of synaptic processes. This means the time to learn foundational skills is early in life.
Introducing children to leadership ideas and skills supports their cognitive, social, behavioral, and emotional development. Schools that integrate leadership skills and practice into their environment help students build lifelong habits, including responsibility, resilience, communication, and problem-solving.
Another reason why early student leadership matters is that students need to learn how to lead themselves before they can lead others. Before anyone can become a leader, they must first develop self-control and intrapersonal skills. Schools are a primary source of this learning as children transition from home into school. Early elementary students receive constant guidance on how to regulate their thoughts and emotions. Schools that intentionally plan for the development of self-control and emotional regulation lay the groundwork for the additional executive functioning skills required to become successful leaders.
Tips for Educators to Cultivate Leadership Opportunities
Educators who want to cultivate leadership opportunities for elementary school students must do so with clear outcomes in mind. The school’s continuous improvement plan should include and embed student leadership introduction and support across the school. At the elementary level, students should learn leadership skills through explicit instruction, be taught that all students can be leaders through the school’s social-emotional learning curriculum, be given opportunities to practice inside and outside the classroom, and be recognized for their leadership development.
Explicit Instruction
Teachers and staff members should have time during the school day to explicitly teach leadership skills. In an elementary school, this could occur during morning meeting time. The skills taught should be schoolwide so staff can reinforce the skills and behaviors throughout the building.
Social-Emotional Learning
Each school will have its own curriculum or approach to social-emotional learning. It is important to integrate intrapersonal and interpersonal leadership skills into the SEL plan. This allows students to begin with self-regulation before moving on to positive interactions with others. One very important aspect of SEL in a school is adult modeling. School leaders, teachers, and staff members should be intentional in their leadership and in how they encourage student leadership.
Opportunities for Practice
Once students have been taught key executive functioning, regulation, and leadership skills, they will need plenty of practice. The first place to provide opportunities is in the classroom. Classroom leadership opportunities should be available to all students, although some children may need additional scaffolding to succeed.
Recognition
Students should see the value of leadership in elementary school through ongoing recognition. School leaders can create tickets or incentives, hold assemblies or parent events, and post on social media to acknowledge students’ growth and leadership success.
Benefits of Student Leadership Programs
For the School
A school that emphasizes leadership skills and opportunities for students will reap benefits in many areas. The skills that are associated with leadership, including communication, collaboration, responsibility, reflection, and accountability, are all underlying indicators of academic success. Students who understand themselves and how to relate to others will show improved achievement in classroom grades and standardized testing.
Another benefit is reduced student misbehavior. When student behaviors impede their learning or the learning of others, the classroom loses instructional time and teacher morale suffers. A school that allocates time and resources to teach the importance of leadership and executive functioning skills will see improved student behavioral choices.
For the Students
Students who are enrolled in a school with leadership opportunities will build real-world skills to prepare for their future. They will build confidence and connection as they lead themselves and their peers. Students who receive instruction and practice in resilience, communication, problem-solving, and responsibility will thrive academically and socially. Just as important as their current experiences are the future readiness students will have if they begin their leadership journey in elementary school.
Practical Ways to Get Elementary Students Involved in Leadership
School leaders can identify opportunities for student leadership in elementary school inside and outside of a student’s homeroom class.
- Peer Buddies — Students can model and mentor younger students or students with specialized needs.
- Reading Partners — Students who are confident in their ability to read to others can read to younger children, record a read-aloud for use in classrooms, and read to children who attend nighttime school events with their parents.
- Recycling and Green Teams — Students can create teams to keep the school beautiful, from picking up classroom recycling from around the school to planning for weekend projects with adult support.
- School Store — Students can be tasked with designing and operating a school store, from gathering information from peers about items to carry to opening the store for peers before school.
- Ambassadors — Students are the best representatives of a school, and they can serve as tour guides when new families enroll or at after-school events.
- Tech Support — Many older elementary students understand technology well and can support adults around the building. They could help subs when they arrive or help prepare for school assemblies.
- Morning Announcements — Students enjoy listening to their peers. If the school has the AV capability to broadcast announcements, students can serve as anchors, tech crew, or script writers. If a school relies on overhead announcements to start the day, students can tell a joke, share a vocabulary word, or recite the school motto.
- Cafeteria Monitors — Students can help their peers open items, get utensils, and even clean up small spills. If the cafeteria has a microphone system, students can use that to share short messages, which will also help keep the volume level down.
- Panelists — Students are excellent candidates for school committees, including establishing school expectations, beautification projects, conflict resolution, principal advisory, and hiring/jobs fairs.
The earlier students learn leadership skills and get practice, the more time they have to develop in a supportive school environment. School leaders’ actions should be grounded in the belief that all children can be leaders if they are given the support and space to develop these skills.
