"The Leader In Me" Doesn't Make Leaders

Transitioning to middle school is a nightmare. We all remember it. Horrible hair. Acne. Stinky, maturing bodies and being forced to shower after gym class.

A few nights ago, I went to a parent orientation for my oldest child, who is transitioning to middle school.  Hidden amongst other agenda items, such as getting the kids excited to use their cell phones during school, was the schedule. Three academic blocks per day, one leadership block, and two electives. That seems okay, right?

But wait a minute. Math. English/Literature. Science. Social studies. There are four main curriculum objectives and only three blocks. When I questioned the guidance counselor about this during the meeting, he explained that both Math and English/Literature each receive one block per day. However, Social Studies and Science share a block. The kids alternate between them.

I seem to be the only parent mortified by this. Leadership receives structured time during my child’s day. Every. Single. Day. But what is leadership? Leadership is  program called “The Leader In Me,” run by none other than FranklinCovey – a for-profit business. Businesses and civic groups in our area have gone together to purchase my child’s time to indoctrinate her with bad middle-management buzzwords.

The goal of this program is to instill children with self-worth and a social toolkit to work with. The problem is that self-worth isn’t found in knowing the definition of the word synergy. It isn’t found in tracking metrics of daily progress in which the child spends more time tracking progress than actually making any. Leadership is not a skill that is taught. Leadership is earned. It is earned by a person’s actions, in the way one approaches the world. In is earned with skill in a particular field, in the mastery of an idea, in an ability to communicate with others. And how does one learn to approach the world? How does one choose their particular field? How is one driven to master an idea and communicate it? Education.

My daughter is being screwed out of her science and social studies education by local businesses. She might be a geologist. She might be an art curator or a political science professor. She might hate all of it. I’m not saying she’s so smart that we need to design her special curriculum or that she’ll master every idea taught. I’m saying that, in a public school system, she’s being cheated out of the opportunity to even try by organizations that have nothing to do with education.

I vividly remember 7^th grade biology. We dissected a frog. I hated it to the point that I swore I’d never take another biology class that wasn’t required. And I didn’t. One of my criteria in choosing Chemical Engineering was that it didn’t require one biology class. So does 7^th grade science matter? Absolutely. Other people thrived on that experience. Many of them are friends of mine who are now physicians. But my daughter will only be exposed to half of the material I was exposed to, because instead she’ll be learning leadership.

What about social studies? So maybe the history of the world isn’t my favorite subject, but I believe my child absolutely needs to be exposed to it – now more than ever. The internet puts everything on the planet immediately within our grasp. Almost every large company is multinational. In order to understand other cultures, to conduct business with them, you must have a reference of their history. This is habit 5 – seek first to understand, then to be understood in action. Don’t teach my child the leadership slogan. Give her the education to actually practice it instead of preach it.

Who teaches leadership? I don’t believe there is a bachelor’s or master’s degree offered in the course, so who is qualified? Our school system has even changed their graduation requirements so leadership is required, unlike typing, a skill which would be highly beneficial in today’s society, even to those who don’t choose to pursue advanced degrees. This means even if I want to use that portion of my child’s day to educate her, I CAN’T. That isn’t required by the state, just my school system, courtesy of FranklinCovey. Parents would riot if their children were forced to flip fries for a portion of their day, sponsored by McDonald’s. Maybe when that becomes a graduation requirement, people will finally start to fight back.

I was so worried about this that I called the Ohio Department of Education to discuss curriculum standards. Those guys are worried – not just for me, but for the entire state. Since the funding for testing has been cut, there is no way to hold schools accountable for what they teach. In our pages and pages of laws and drivel, there is not one place that requires a certain amount of time or teacher contact hours for social studies or science. So sadly, there is no way to legally pursue a change for my school district. But why are laws and lawsuits required to convince schools to do their jobs? Shouldn’t their mission be to expose my child to the broadest range of topics possible, and provide enough depth for her to learn what her strengths and weaknesses are? Isn’t our goal to prepare her for competence in whatever her chosen field is, along with a social conscience to make her an engaged citizen?

If I had one wish, it would be for our school to conduct an anonymous survey and ask the children what they really think of "The Leader In Me." Most high school students use expletives to describe it, although they would never come forward to say that in a classroom because the pressure from the school system and our community is too high. My almost-7^th-grade daughter says it’s a complete waste of time. In her words, the kids who are doing well don’t need it because they already have those skills, and the ones who need it aren’t listening anyway.

I’m sure this will be an unpopular post. Almost everyone I know buys into “The Leader In Me” hook, line, and sinker. And I’m not saying the program doesn’t have some merit or things it can offer. To this point, my annoyance with it has been offset by the fact that I never felt it interfered with my daughter’s education. Yes, it’s agitating to fill out metrics and silly forms, but lots of us have to do that garbage at work either way so she might as well get used to it now, although if you really think about that statement, it is TRAGIC. Leadership as an elective? No problem. 

But leadership in the place of science and social studies? Think of that on a grand scale. What would happen to our country if that were a priority? Science innovation done mostly overseas. Other countries controlling American interests because we’re too culturally unaware of the world around us to know better. Wait. Maybe I’m the one who missed something. Maybe this school system IS preparing my kids for the world they live in.