Leadership training and education is a process of raising our children to be leaders of the future, entrepreneurs in business, elders/deacons in the church, statesmen in the community - who do the right thing. These are the leaders who will make a change in our society. My hope for my own children is they will be excellent leaders of the future.



People wonder why one child receives leadership education and the other receives training to become a follower. The thing is, a child who is schooled in the right way to think, will more likely become future leaders. When young people think outside their comfort zone, when they work on their own way, and use it in life, then they grow to become tomorrow's leaders, doing what is right.

How is do you train children to think? How can you do this in your curriculum. . . for free?

Andrew Kern, of Circe Institute, says the quality of questions you ask determines the quality of your life. Leaders have been brought up learning to ask the right questions. They do not simply think on literal terms; they think beyond the literal, evaluating and analyzing issues.

Asking questions of your students is free and easy, as well as extremely effective. Questions should allow your children time to think and ponder. Your responsibility is deciding which question are the best ones to ask and leading a discussion with your students.

When a question is brought forth, then a decision must be made. As your kids answer the question, they are being trained to make good decisions. At times, these decisions are offered through a mentor. It's best to give your students a lot of time to practice answering questions with you near them. A nice topic to start questioning is from the classic book you are reading together.

Choose a classic book on your students' reading level. Have them read the book daily and write down their thoughts about the book. Once or twice a week you, as the teacher and mentor, lead a Socratic discussion. Begin by asking simple, literal questions to give your students confidence in participating.

Once you set the stage with simple questions, start asking questions of comparison. Compare two different characters or settings. List the ideas on the board to generate more discussion. Most of all, be careful you, as the mentor, do not answer your own questions. When there is no answer for your question, rephrase your question and wait for your students to respond. Silence is great at allowing our children to think on their own.

Leadership training is absolutely necessary in today's curriculum for your students. Questions and discussions are the beginning point of educating our children to be leaders who can think on their own.