Leadership from the Ground Up: with a grass roots approach
who are the "influencers'? at school
Why don't we let kids lead more?
Who says adults have the market on leadership?
This is a young woman/girl (not sure about age)
innovation
leadership
leadership =
clear vision
courage
inspiring others
willing to take risks
responsibility
listening
guiding
making tough choices
amazingly poised speaker
she published a book at age 7
she is now a TedEx Redmond organizing speaker
http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2010/04/19/announcing-tedx-redmond-youth-planned-youth/
adults can learn from children? I love listening to her; she will be the next Michelle Rhee, right?
for the sake of adding another POV, and at the risk of being riddled with bullets and scorned as an opinionated child-hater, i must say i had a different response.
ReplyDeleteAdora seems to be a dream learner. She is eloquent, clever and engaging. She is confident, smart and extremely verbal. She cites examples from peers and adults alike to support her mission: adults can learn from students and must recognize that students are potential leaders too. She makes essential points about the role of a teacher in the classroom and the fire waiting for just a bit of oxygen within each student.
and here is where my uneasiness sets in. on a feeling level, this speech, as well as the one at the TED conf., struck me as over-rehearsed, coached, controlled, for adults, head centered. There was little personal reflection built in and lots of "we" speaking for "kids". I would love to hear what being a "leader" has helped her develop, how it has fed her "soul" (to be a bit CA for you), how it has made her more creative in her work, or empathetic. yet it is the creative brain that we are trying to cultivate for an ever changing world that requires absolute flexibility and adaptability.
She is not like most 12year olds that i know. So are we saying "listen to kids" or "listen to kids that act like adults".
Our world is interdependent. As a humanitarian, i wonder what effect continually celebrating independence and "listen to me" focus will have on this generation. When we ask and encourage (and further celebrate) kids to access and use their own voice, speak their truths, tell their stories, at what point do we override teaching the importance of listening? listening to their parents experiences, their grandparents stories - not because it is the only truth but because it is part of a well-lived story, and we want to learn from history, right? Blogs, opinion columns, snarky websites, memoirs - i don't have a concrete statistic but isn't our society spiraling to the "me" versus the universiality of human experience.