Do any other teachers here hate “Leader in Me”?

[Anonymous]

All the teachers in my high school are forced to teach leader in me during our advisory/home room time. I just feel like I am rambling about jargon nonsense for thirty minutes. The videos seem geared for elementary schoolers and are sometimes not in English. The PowerPoint this week was over forty slides to get done in 30 minutes. It has been a constant fight just to keep kids off their phones, but I honestly don’t blame them. I can’t believe the county paid $1.8 million for this.

Conceptually there is nothing wrong with the seven habits but the presentations seem to assume I am some sort of indoctrinated expert already who is all bubbly about this shit and can think of loads of examples or something. Some kids are in sync with it. Usually students who already have a positive attitude and don’t really need this “training”. But most students have bigger priorities and I and don’t feel like this meets their needs at all.

I asked my other classes how the training is handled and it seems like most are just doing their best to completely ignore it and pretend to hear nothing.

[Anonymous]

$1.8M for any such initiative should trigger an investigation.

They can do this but they can’t teach grammar?

[Anonymous]

Middle school teacher here and we have 17 minute advisories twice a week to cram this down kids’ throats. Many kids completely check out as it’s way over their heads and too scripted. Instead, we could use the time checking that students are actually using their agendas to write down assignments and manage their time or to just let them hang out in small groups while counselors pull kids out for actual SEL

[Anonymous]

Can you tell us what the course covers? Is any of it useful or effective?

[Anonymous]

My kids could tell their teachers hated it last year. It is really a shame any amount of time is being spent on this program, which is not helping the kids who really need help.

[Anonymous]

The Leader in Me curriculum is sold by Franklin Covey (for-profit), and it’s based on Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—which was heavily informed by his Mormon faith. As the father of 9, he used his multiple degrees to blend his religion and business skills to become a very wealthy businessman.

I find it very interesting that we can’t have a Halloween parade in mcps (which costs the school nothing) because of “religion” yet we paid upwards of $2M for this curriculum largely derived from Mormon principles.

[Anonymous]

Completely a waste of time, I told admin I’m not teaching it again. Fire me if you want but I’m not wasting my time or the children time with it. I told them they can come teach it themselves if they find it more important than what I’m doing.

[Anonymous]

I'm a school counselor and shocked that MCPS is wasting time and money and resources on this. The $ would be better spent on 504 coordinators so school counselors can spend more time counseling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$1.8M for any such initiative should trigger an investigation.

They can do this but they can’t teach grammar?

This. Can’t teach grammar, spelling or Algebra if you look at the MCPS test scores.

It’s how MCPS works. Millions of dollars spent on questionable initiatives.

[Anonymous]

They just started teaching this in my DD's 1st grade class (they sent a warning email last year that it was coming). One thing I did like was a lesson called "the power of yet". For example, "I can't XYZ (cook, read, get married, ride a bike, etc) yet. But the other lessons have involved learning what the 7 principles are and watching elementary kids sing songs about the principles. My daughter did like the song though and had me google it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNNlA8vq5U

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the teachers in my high school are forced to teach leader in me during our advisory/home room time. I just feel like I am rambling about jargon nonsense for thirty minutes. The videos seem geared for elementary schoolers and are sometimes not in English. The PowerPoint this week was over forty slides to get done in 30 minutes. It has been a constant fight just to keep kids off their phones, but I honestly don’t blame them. I can’t believe the county paid $1.8 million for this.

Conceptually there is nothing wrong with the seven habits but the presentations seem to assume I am some sort of indoctrinated expert already who is all bubbly about this shit and can think of loads of examples or something. Some kids are in sync with it. Usually students who already have a positive attitude and don’t really need this “training”. But most students have bigger priorities and I and don’t feel like this meets their needs at all.

I asked my other classes how the training is handled and it seems like most are just doing their best to completely ignore it and pretend to hear nothing.

All the teachers at my school love this program. It's really so wonderful. I don't know what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the teachers in my high school are forced to teach leader in me during our advisory/home room time. I just feel like I am rambling about jargon nonsense for thirty minutes. The videos seem geared for elementary schoolers and are sometimes not in English. The PowerPoint this week was over forty slides to get done in 30 minutes. It has been a constant fight just to keep kids off their phones, but I honestly don’t blame them. I can’t believe the county paid $1.8 million for this.

Conceptually there is nothing wrong with the seven habits but the presentations seem to assume I am some sort of indoctrinated expert already who is all bubbly about this shit and can think of loads of examples or something. Some kids are in sync with it. Usually students who already have a positive attitude and don’t really need this “training”. But most students have bigger priorities and I and don’t feel like this meets their needs at all.

I asked my other classes how the training is handled and it seems like most are just doing their best to completely ignore it and pretend to hear nothing.

All the teachers at my school love this program. It's really so wonderful. I don't know what you are talking about.

Can you explain what about this program you find helpful for students?

[Anonymous]

We have 30+ minutes dedicated to it every morning and we hate it, in my opinion the lessons take way less time and the kids think it's patronizing, "oh no you spent too much time playing video games what should you have done differently " 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a school counselor and shocked that MCPS is wasting time and money and resources on this. The $ would be better spent on 504 coordinators so school counselors can spend more time counseling.

+1 So many better uses for the money including increasing the pay for teachers, para educators, counselors, speech therapists, etc. - basically anyone who directly work with students.

[Anonymous]

Taught it last year… third graders absolutely didn’t buy in (good for them) as much as I hated it, I was positive about it. Fast forward: now I teach fifth… they would never buy into it no matter what. It’s bs and you know it’s bad when the kids know it’s bad.