CITIZENSHIP AND PATRIOTISM
THE RIGHT WAY TO LEAD: A LOOK INTO CIVIL RIGHTS
School: Mountain View High School
Description: Most student leaders know the story behind the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and how it reshaped our modern American society. Today, most of us see human rights taking place in the news as people fight for basic rights, such as gender equality. However, it seems that few really understand the powerful effects of leadership on these rights. It is because of powerful leadership that there have been—and still are—defenders and offenders of human and civil rights throughout history, and even today. The purpose of “The Right Way to Lead” project was to serve as a huge leadership message to our student council. With it, student leaders were able to decide what type of leadership legacy they want to leave. As a main part of this project, our council took a field trip to the “Center for Human and Civil Rights Museum” in downtown Atlanta. However, prior to the field trip, each Family Group in the Student Council discussed what civil and human rights actually were. Each individual group discussed topics including: examples and traits of good and bad leaders, the defenders and offenders of human and civil rights, and whether leaders always have to fight for what is morally right. The goal of this pre-field trip activity was for our council’s student leaders to discuss their opinions and explore commonalities and differences between positive and negative leadership. During the field trip, each family group was assigned two less-recognized leaders. The groups searched the museum for information on their leaders. Each leader was either an example of a Civil Rights leader, or a Human Rights leader. In addition, one of these leaders was a defender of human and civil rights while the other was an offender. Once they found the information in the museum, they wrote down the accomplishments and legacy of these leaders. Finally, in a post-field trip discussion, our student council members reflected on what they could learn and apply to their own leadership development, based off of the leaders they researched—both for good and bad. Our hopes for this leadership-improvement project was for members to see the power of leadership and how this power can be used in many ways, both to accomplish great things, like fighting for equality, or to accomplish horrible deeds, like genocide and segregation. Our student council learned the important lesson of using the power of leadership to defend people’s right within our community.
Description: Most student leaders know the story behind the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and how it reshaped our modern American society. Today, most of us see human rights taking place in the news as people fight for basic rights, such as gender equality. However, it seems that few really understand the powerful effects of leadership on these rights. It is because of powerful leadership that there have been—and still are—defenders and offenders of human and civil rights throughout history, and even today. The purpose of “The Right Way to Lead” project was to serve as a huge leadership message to our student council. With it, student leaders were able to decide what type of leadership legacy they want to leave. As a main part of this project, our council took a field trip to the “Center for Human and Civil Rights Museum” in downtown Atlanta. However, prior to the field trip, each Family Group in the Student Council discussed what civil and human rights actually were. Each individual group discussed topics including: examples and traits of good and bad leaders, the defenders and offenders of human and civil rights, and whether leaders always have to fight for what is morally right. The goal of this pre-field trip activity was for our council’s student leaders to discuss their opinions and explore commonalities and differences between positive and negative leadership. During the field trip, each family group was assigned two less-recognized leaders. The groups searched the museum for information on their leaders. Each leader was either an example of a Civil Rights leader, or a Human Rights leader. In addition, one of these leaders was a defender of human and civil rights while the other was an offender. Once they found the information in the museum, they wrote down the accomplishments and legacy of these leaders. Finally, in a post-field trip discussion, our student council members reflected on what they could learn and apply to their own leadership development, based off of the leaders they researched—both for good and bad. Our hopes for this leadership-improvement project was for members to see the power of leadership and how this power can be used in many ways, both to accomplish great things, like fighting for equality, or to accomplish horrible deeds, like genocide and segregation. Our student council learned the important lesson of using the power of leadership to defend people’s right within our community.