The way you measure a society’s soul is by the way that it treats its children.
Nelson Mandela
Kidz Newz #158 – 9th March 2017
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Choosing Leaders
As we have an election coming up in Western Australia this weekend I have been thinking about what makes a leader and the process by which leaders get elected, whether in a political capacity or on the sporting field or in the boardroom. Practice for this experience starts at school.
I was reminded of a great book I read some time ago about personality and how our innate personality tends to dominate our chosen careers and our positions within those careers. The book is Personality Plus by Florence Littauer. She describes 4 basic types, not dissimilar to the Myers Briggs assessments used by HR people but very much simplified and more applicable to every situation, not just the working arena.
The first one she describes is the natural born leader, or Choleric. (All her names refer to the ancient ‘Humours’ of mediaeval times as it was once believed one’s personality was based on bodily fluids. Her book, I’m pleased to say, has moved on from those days.) It is interesting that the leader, the Choleric, should appear first. I suppose that’s logical. When you look around at the children in your midst you see them straight away – the ones always wanting to be the leaders. They naturally take charge in games, even friendly playground games. This is to be encouraged while not allowing them to dominate others, which is their natural tendency. The irritating thing about them is that their decisions are usually right but they can be dogmatic and insensitive to others whom they can see as annoying. They simply want to get on with things because they know what to do and don’t want to wait for the others to catch up. (Recognize anyone so far?) We want all our children to have a go at being ‘leader’ or performing on stage but that is not the natural state for a lot of children, which is not to say we shouldn’t encourage them. They should all develop that ability to some extent.
Another group are sanguines – the life and soul of the party types. These are the ones who make everything a joy and a laugh. They are wonderful fun to be around but can be disorganised and way too talkative to ever get anything done. They make great teachers because they tend to be kind and sensitive and they make the lessons fun. Those children (and adults) have to learn to let others have their say.
A third group are melancholics. These are the organised, precise types. If you want something done, quickly and properly, then get a melancholic to do it. They can get overwhelmed with perfectionism, however, and be driven nuts by others around them who don’t share their obsession with order.
The final group are the phlegmatics. These are the laid-back types who take life in their stride. Interestingly, it is often these people who are promoted to leadership roles rather than the cholerics because they are very easy to get along with. They don’t ruffle any feathers the way cholerics can tend to do. If left too much to their own devices, however, they can be lazy, so don’t let them get away with excuses.
When you set children a task, the cholerics will do it quickly and be very competitive, wanting to be first to finish the task. Winning and being the best is paramount. The sanguines can tend to get bored half-way through and want to stop to have a chat or gaze out the window but brought back into line will be willing students. After all, they want to be liked so that will be their motivation. They won’t want to make the teacher angry. The melancholics may take the longest because being the neatest and doing everything perfectly may delay them. The phlegmatics will want to do the task because their motivation is doing the right thing, irrespective of ‘winning the race’, although it may be a little sloppy as they often can’t be bothered.
The motivation for completing the task, therefore, is different for each group of children depending on their personalities. Cholerics want to win, sanguines want to be liked, melancholics want to be perfect, phlegmatics want to do the right thing. This is a generalisation, but you get the picture. And, of course, we all have aspects of all the groups but generally one will dominate.
So you can clearly see from these differences why it is important in group work to have each of the personality types represented because they each bring special skills and talents to the table. This can clearly be seen even in quite young children. That is not to say behaviour can’t be learnt or modified or that your personality is cast in concrete, but rather that innate personality traits are obvious even in the very young. What we need to do as educators is to bring out the best in every one of our children so they play to their strengths while minimising their weaknesses, for want of a better word. Above all, we want them to learn to modify their behaviour to allow for differences of opinion and approaches to a task. Because others behave or think differently, it doesn’t make them wrong. This is an important lesson in tolerance and understanding for children to learn.
How does this play out in the political arena? Are all our leaders cholerics? Not necessarily and neither should they be, but where they are not cholerics, you can be sure a choleric is a close advisor.
PD in Perth 25 March
If you are in the Perth (Western Australia) area or can get to Perth, I am running a PD in conjunction with Winsome Richards of Move to Learn. Click here for details and enrolment form.d
Quotes of the Week
A leader without a sense of humour is apt to be like the grass mower at the cemetery – he has lots of people under him, but nobody is paying him any attention. – Bob Ross
Before you are a leader success is all about growing yourself. When you are a leader success is all about growing others.
– Jack Welch
I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
– Ralph Nader
If your actions inspire others to dream more, do more and become more, then you are a leader.
– John Quincy Adams
Education is the mother of leadership.
– Wendell Willkie
Testimonials
From PD Armadale PS WA – May 2016 –
I loved the layering of the activities and how simple they can be. I will be heading out to the OP shops this weekend to hunt down some scarves. Love the movement! Kylie Lyon, Gwynne Park PS, Year 1
This was a fantastic session with a lot of practical activities I can’t wait to implement. We all had so much fun. Michelle Sandery, DOTT provider ECE
Absolutely fantastic!
I loved getting up and dancing. Can’t wait to do it with the kids. Lauren Barzotto, Armadale PS PP
Entertainment
I dare you to pick the personalities here! Have a laugh and if you are in Australia, you may recognize a few faces (even outside of Australia I’m sure you will too). Irrespective, have a laugh! You will certainly know the source material.
Click here
About The Author
Marlene Rattigan B.A., Dip. Ed. (ECS), CELTA
Marlene Rattigan is an Early Childhood teacher, a teacher of English as a Second Language, and from 1987-2000 was a nationally accredited fitness leader. Her background is in music education. A keen interest in motor development in children led to the creation of Kidz-Fiz-Biz which she taught successfully for 13 years. Marlene also conducts workshops for children, teachers and parents at schools, in the community and at festivals. She has produced teaching manuals complete with audio CDs which are an extension of her ‘Kidz-Fiz-Biz’ program.
Kidz-Fiz-Biz
PO Box 6894, East Perth WA 6892 Australia
T: +61 8 9355 4890 M: +61 (0) 410 64 2781 E: info@kidzfizbiz.com
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Until next time … continue being a legend in your classroom.
Marlene Rattigan, Editor
Kidz Newz
