teachPrimary - Why children are their own leaders and teachers just get in the way

teachPrimary have recently published my approach to teaching leadership, self-discipline and good old fashioned gumption in the classroom. The article was first published on their website, and you can read it here.

A copy of the article is reproduced below.

Before becoming a teacher I was an officer in the Royal Navy. I lived and breathed leadership.

Commitment, courage, discipline, respect for others, integrity and loyalty were our six core values of leadership. Everyone was expected to lead, from the oldest admiral to the youngest able seaman.

As an officer, my day-to-day job involved working with a team of 30 people to achieve an aim.

We came with a mix of experiences, knowledge and enthusiasm for the job at hand (maybe you can see where I’m going with this…). A ship is only as strong as the individuals that make it and the standards they hold each other to.

I gave oversight and direction in my role as officer, but it was down to individuals, pairs and groups to achieve the aim. The best advice I was given was, “Tell them what needs doing and why – then get the heck out of the way.”

Often we would be spread about the ship or between different vessels with lines of communication that were imperfect. Everyone in the team had a voice and was expected to contribute and question orders that didn’t make sense.

When you are working with moving machinery that weighs several tonnes everyone’s safety is everyone’s responsibility.

When I left the Navy to teach, these were the experiences and ethos I brought with me. I wanted each child in my classroom to be a leader of their own learning, and a leader within their classroom.

To bring this to life, I trialled having just two classroom rules:

1. You are responsible for what you do – and do not do.

2. You are entitled to your own opinion – and to have it questioned.

Tackling the ‘b’ word

So, what does all this idealistic thinking look like in the classroom?

To begin with, it comes with setting the tone within the first few days of the school year; explaining that we are all leaders and all members of our team.

We discuss leadership, the importance of leading others and holding our team to account. We also discuss how I and the other adults in the room are there to show the way, not to sit behind pushing them forward.

It also means tackling the ‘b’ word: bossy. It is a word I have come to have a near-pathological hatred for – it is more readily applied to girls and it devalues the contribution of others.

The Royal Navy is a pretty even split between men and women so, as one of my more colourful shipmates put it, “The leader is the leader, it doesn’t matter what plumbing you have.”

Therefore, we talk about language and how we talk to others: “Don’t say ‘You’re doing it wrong!’; do say, ‘Have you tried it this way?’”.

We talk about the expectation that we will all help each other in our learning. We talk about how we should readily call upon the expertise and experience of others when we need it, regardless of if the person is a boy or girl, friend or not.

If you need help with your learning, you should be ready to ask for it and accept it from whomever is best suited.

Work worth doing

The first rule, about being responsible for yourself, is as much to do with learning as behaviour. As someone smarter than me put it (and I have this on a poster above my desk), “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

Children are accountable for their learning and the learning of those around them. As a class we make time in lessons to celebrate success and – more importantly – discuss what we found challenging.

Children in my class have quietly said to me they feel more confident in their learning when they hear one of the ‘smart kids’ saying they found it hard. It builds mutual respect and bonds the class.

It also means you don’t get a blank page at the end of a lesson because a pupil ‘didn’t get it’ and didn’t ask for help. No child can now sit doing nothing if they are stuck.

Their peers will ask them why and offer advice. Equally, pupils will be challenged if they were asked to help and wouldn’t. No one gets left behind – the person tries to keep up and the team doesn’t let them stay static.

As the teacher, I hold myself to the same standard. If I feel a lesson was a success, I tell the class why. Equally, if a lesson has gone sideways, I tell the class and explain what we’ll do next time to fix it. Being fallible builds a lasting respect between class and teacher.

I’ve also found that this ethos stamps out low-level disruption and other unacceptable behaviour. If your partner is distracting others or not engaging in the learning, you should be telling them to stop – not putting your hand up and telling a teacher.

If a pupil sees a classmate being unkind to another, they are expected to step in. To paraphrase the oft-misattributed quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”

I have taken to not discussing the ‘golden rule’ (do unto others as you would have done unto you) for this reason. While we rightly should expect children to be kind to each other, it doesn’t speak of their responsibility to ensure others are kind to each other as well.

Words have power

Regarding the second rule, about opinions and having them questioned, in this age of social media, fake news and opinion having more credence than fact, the rights and responsibilities of free speech have taken on a new importance.

As a leader, words have power and consequences. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will crush the life out of you.

If children are being asked to support others, their comments and advice need to have integrity. “I thought your writing was very nice” offers no guidance to a partner, nor leads them to what they could do next.

If children are going to critique each other’s behaviour, they need to be ready to explain what word or action they disagreed with.

Getting out of the way

If you want children to lead their learning, you need to let them do just that: lead. The best way to do that is get out of the way.

When I was a 19-year-old midshipman I was trusted to lead teams of men and women twice my age, sometimes successfully and sometimes making a bit of a fool of myself. It taught me when to lead and when to listen.

Children need the space and time to find their identity and style as a leader. They need time to learn when to lead and when it is better to follow. Can it go wrong? Of course. Is it worth it for the pay off? Most definitely.