Foundations of a Leadership Academy

Originally Written: 06/04/2016

I want to say that like most people, I spent some time thinking about what kind of training or curriculum a person could engage in that would best result in a group of highly competent leaders resistant to the ills that accompany these roles such as corruption and maleficence. During this day I took to writing, I came to the conclusion that in order to get competent leaders, you have to teach them the rulebook while they’re young, and tailor their curriculum based on their age and to expand the range of subjects to include things that are not currently taught in the current American school system. Without further ado, I lay out my idea below.

A system of sort needs to have a defined set of core values. They are:

• Moral fortitude
• A well-rounded knowledge base in the natural science, social sciences, business, and interpersonal communications
• Critical thinking
• Problem solving

Since we’ll be choosing children to enter this sort of academy, we have to assume that some kids will be well tempered to become leaders and others will not. To reduce the probability of recruiting subpar candidates or recruiting the children of nefarious parents looking to plant their children into the high positions, the selection process needs to be able to exclude them. Therefore, the selection process follows as:

• Age

  • The candidates should be around 6-8 years old to bring the children into a full and complete devotion to leadership and service.

Selection Process

• Model A is based on an application or a recommendation from their current schools or family. In this model, the child must already demonstrate outstanding moral character.
• Model B uses trained recruiters to identify children of high moral character regardless of social background.
• Parents and child are interviewed together to discuss curriculum, intensity of the program, and how often they will see their children during the program.
• The family is then put under a 3-week observational period to assure that the family and child are in good moral standing, and to reduce the likelihood of nefarious intent behind enrollment.
• A social experiment will be conducted on the family to give a final confirmation of the family’s value system.

We’re working with younger children in this case, how could we tailor a curriculum to improve the outcome that they will become competent and resilient leaders? In this respect, the curriculum will be tweaked to account for two principles of development. First, pre-puberty is a good time to introduce the basics of a curriculum. Second, during puberty, no matter how well behaved they are, teenagers are primarily concerned with the social life, so the curriculum during those years should focus on social life. Once the “angst” is mostly subsided, this is the perfect opportunity to teach about the complexities of human life. Moving on, the basic framework of the curriculum follows the following timeline:

6yo – 12yo: The basics

• History
• Basic biology
• Writing/reading
• Methods of cognition
• Introduction to group work and dynamics
• Introduction to ethics

13yo – 16yo: The social life

• Ethics
• Philosophy
• Sociology
• Anthropology
• Psychology
• Biology and sexual education

17yo – 21yo: The materialistic complexity of the world

• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Current and future developments of technology

22yo – 25yo: Social complexity of the world

• Economics and game theory
• Political theory
• Literary analysis
• Logic and rhetoric
• Business fundamentals and management
• Year-long practicum in leadership and management