Leadership
“Whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a randsom for many.” – Matthew 20:27-28
A good leader should be able to inspire, motivate and energize a group. I want my kids to learn to have vision, passion and use their enthusiasm to inspire others toward an end goal or greater vision. I wanted to find a word picture to demonstrate this, and I think I found the perfect one.
What you need:
* white plate
* milk (the site I got this from said “room temp” but I did mine cold, and it worked)
* food coloring
* Q-Tips
* dish soap
1. Pour milk in plate to just cover the bottom.
2. Drop food coloring in the milk. Do not stir or move the plate at this point. The food coloring should basically stay in the same place.
3. Put dish soap on the end of a Q-Tip. Put the Q-Tip in the milk and observe. The food coloring will immediately begin moving around. Do not move the Q-Tip. Keep it in one spot, and you can still observe the food coloring moving away from it. I did a couple Q-Tips in a few different spots to make the food coloring move from the different corners.
What is happening? Milk has surface tension since it has a lot of water in it. The food coloring stays in one place because of that surface tension. When the soap is added, it breaks apart the bonds in the water molecules so that the color can start moving around the milk. There’s more science behind it, so if you want to read more, you can go to the site where I found this experiment.
How does this relate to teaching leadership? I compared what was happening in our science experiment to what a good leader does. The food coloring drops represented a group of people. These people were sitting around doing nothing. A good leader comes in and inspires people to take action. They do this through being a servant, a listener, a good communicator and enthusiastic. When a leader with these qualities comes in, he or she motivates people toward certain goals or activities.
I love this Jodi! Great example!
A 2 for one lesson. Really well done. I have milk paint on the list of things I want to do with my daughter. I think, after reading your post, I’ll move it to the top of my list. Thanks!
We haven’t done this forever, but my kids love it too. Must bust it out again 🙂
I remember doing this activity. So much more meaningful when you add the word of God to it. Great example. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!