April 2010

Conventional wisdom does not regard children being leaders in their own right. We still think that little boys are made of frogs and snails and puppy-dogs tails, and, girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice. Surprisingly, even Google is silent on the leadership issue! I keyed in the question, children be trained as leaders? There were over 4 million responses but none addressed the question of children being even considered as leaders.

Despite all the scientific evidence, a raging debate still continues on whether one is born a leader, or are leaders made? The answer is quite simple: nobody is born a leader, you become a leader. Man is not born as talent; he is born potential. The process of becoming a leader should start as early in life as possible. I believe that the right age to begin is when the child is in preschool. There is abundant scientific evidence to support this belief.

Science proclaims that 50 percent of human learning is over by the age of ten. In these early years the first four years are critical. This is when the childs greatest spurt of growth takes place cognition, emotions, concepts of life, mind, and matter, values, creativity, curiosity, motor senses, logic and mathematics, and language. This window of learning extends up to puberty.

A good example is language development. A second and even a third language is easily learnt before puberty, provided the child is reared in a nurturing environment. For example, to stimulate language comprehension, teachers and parents need to talk a lot to a child during this critical time window. If you miss the window it doesnt mean you give up hope; it only means that it will take greater efforts. Another example is learning fine motor skills. If you learn a musical instrument before the age of ten, you will be more proficient with less practice.

The Suzuki Method to instrumental teaching is another example. Dr Suzuki started teaching the violin to children as young as three, and turned them into widely acclaimed professional musicians. He proved to the world that with discipline, repetition, motivation, love, and parental involvement, every child can master a skill, because all children have the potential.

There is now ample scientific proof to advise parents and teachers to look upon children, however small they may be, as leaders. Even tiny babies and children know much more than what we think. Children are not born with a blank and clean slate tabula rasa, rather, the hard evidence confirms that they possess innate knowledge, together with powerful learning abilities, and the ability of unconscious tuition from adults. It is, therefore, no surprise that the legendary Picasso once remarked, took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.

I am extremely happy to see this evening a mass display of leadership talent in creativity, communications, role playing and team work. I would like you to look upon Indus Day for the primary school as a leadership building exercise in self-awareness, self-expression and innocence.

From the next session, a special leadership curriculum with the IB Learners Profile as the reference point, is being instituted in the Primary School. The outcomes will be visible and lasting. With a dynamic Principal and team of leaders and faculty this is do-able and then it will be our pride and pleasure to watch our very young emerge as confident, caring, and leading adolescents. Leadership is not just one more thing that is to be added to the curriculum, just as character education is not a stand-alone subject. Leadership is a ubiquitous strategy to be built into all our approaches and activities.

I would like to leave you with a thought the mantra for what you wish your children to become. The mantra is Excellence! The journey begins when you are a child because excellence is a habit, a state of mind, and an attitude. Excellence will enable your child to reach out beyond the grasp of mediocricity, and give her the confidence to be prepared for all challenges Omnia Paratus!