Opening Easter Eggs = Leadership

Have you all ever watched an Easter Egg Hunt? A whistle blows (or a gun fires if you are REALLY in Texas) and all of a sudden children throw themselves forward to pick up eggs. Eggs.... Plastic round eggs... Filled with goodness knows what! How random!? Here is the best part: They don't pick up one egg, open it, check out its content and decide if it's worthy, then move on to another. They pick up egg, after egg, after egg, after egg, without EVER stopping. They do this ASSUMING that whatever is inside of each egg is wonderful and scrumptious and worth their efforts. They trust this and run with reckless abandon toward each plastic egg.

Children 1) Assume the best in each egg 2) Don't stop to examine 3) Gather eggs with excitement and 4) Take pleasure in the hunt. What would happen if we took a lesson from children at Easter Egg Hunts? With our Leader in Me journey, this is what we have done so far. We have thrown ourselves toward this paradigm shift with reckless abandon and assumed that every egg we open will have wonderful, sweet, and triumphant goodies inside and we have thoroughly enjoyed the hunt so far.

Many adults stop to examine the "eggs" in front of them, wondering, "Is it cracked?", "Could it have gone sour?", "What if it was ruined from the beginning?", "What if the insides melted?" We haven't stopped to examine the eggs, rather, we have seen each egg as a fresh one, ready to be gathered and opened up to wonderful beginnings, just like young children see each egg at an Easter Egg Hunt.

This paradigm shift has paid off. Not only have we "opened up eggs" after the hunt to discover wonderful leaders that we never imagined could be there, but we have done so with reckless abandon and sometimes have even forgotten to stop and catch our breath during the hunt. Random fact- We have given out almost 200 Super Cougar Leadership awards in less than 5 months! We did not realize this until we stopped to "catch our breath" during the "hunt" recently. But still, there are many "eggs" left unopened. At many times, Mrs. Heintzman and I have stopped and looked at each other and asked, "Should we really be recognized for this right now? We have gone so far, but still have so far to go!" The latest achievement, of many of this year, that our school has received is to be the elementary school winner of the district "Model Character" award. Yes, our school is an exemplary example of modeling strong character, but it is so much more than that. This is something that can't be put into words, but only felt but those a part of our school community.

As I watch my sons hunt for Easter eggs tomorrow, I be thinking of what they are imagining, how they are SURE there is "good" stuff inside, and how excited they will be to open up their eggs (even if there are Goldfish inside ;). I will remind myself that we need to take our children as a model when searching for leadership in our own youth, the very youth that can barely sleep tonight in anticipation of the Easter Bunny. As educators, we should live with that same anticipation each day and know that every single child is filled with something wonderful. After all, who wouldn't love opening up an egg filled with some wonderful and scrumptious sweet stuff??