Junior Leadership Pilot has Students at Attention

In one classroom at Summerour Middle this week, students wore identical light green shirts and black pants. Their teacher was commanding but chatty at the front of the room in full army dress, using a yardstick as a pointer.  

They recite a statement at the beginning of class in unison—“I am respectful at all times” and other affirmations of their collective character—then quietly line up for a uniform check, performed by one of the four “squad leaders." Non-commissioned officer SFC James Buckland stands by giving gentle pointers. “You can tell them the good stuff, too. You can tell the good, the bad and the ugly,” he says. “That’s what a good leader does.”

These students—a roughly equal number of boys and girls—chose to take this “Connections” class called the Junior Leadership as a part of Project PASS.

It's a leadership pilot program funded and sponsored by the Army and National Association of State Boards of Education. The program, one of six in the country, stresses personal appearance, responsibility and—most of all—being a leader. 

“We try to reiterate that it’s not a recruiting tool at all. The army has proven ways to train leaders. This is their way of giving back to the community,” says Andrea Steele, who is the Community Coordinator for the program, which is at Summerour, Pinckeyville Middle and Norcross High School.   

The curriculum, which comes from PASS, is designed to expose students to a wide variety of tropics not normally hit on in traditional classrooms, so they can “grow emotionally and academically while stressing the importance of personal responsibility,” according to Steele.

Indeed, in one class the officer asked the students to “get deep.” He showed a video about a surfer who didn’t have both arms and described circumstances when people were able to overcome obstacles. Then he asked that students to share their obstacles. Many hands jutted up to speak.

Steele said she’s been surprised by what the students have liked the most. She wasn’t sure how they’d feel about the uniforms, but Buckland, who got them donated from contacts in the Army, said as soon as they came the students wanted to put them on.

Steele also said she just didn’t know they would respond to drills, but the students absolutely love them. Michael Allison, a student who was named Class Cadet Commander, said, “I like that I get to experience things that the army actually does, like marching. “

The second part of the program will focus less on self-discovery and more on being a leader outside the classroom. And it will include more outdoor activities as the weather warms up. 

Jennifer Franco, another student in the program, said that she’s already gotten something out of the class: She’s reached her goal of passing math, which she set in the classroom.

“I want to learn how to be a leader,” said Franco. “I want to stand up for myself and be brave.”