Leadership means the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the state of being a leader. What makes someone a good leader and what are some good leadership skills? Revere High School history teacher Phil Heyn’s new class The History of Leadership will teach students skills in being a good leader, focus on some of the greatest leaders throughout history and explore leadership styles students already use.

The course itself teaches about the history of leadership and what makes an individual a good leader. Students will learn of leaders like Gandhi and George Washington. Heyn explained the function of the class and the subjects the students will learn.

“History of Leadership will cover two different approaches. First to look into the history of leadership, looking at historical figures throughout history that have been great leaders and what makes them great leaders or attributes of them that made them great leaders. The class will also look at this part but also what makes up a great leader and looking at each student. They will take some self-leadership tests so we can figure out who they are and what their strengths are and what they need to work on,” Heyn said.

The curriculum director and the principal must approve a new class to make it an actual class. Revere High School Phil King talked about the process involved in creating a new class.

“A new class requires a staff member or the department to come up with plans and submit those plans. The curriculum director and I will usually require the following: what kinds of the topics are going to be covered, what kind of standards do those topics meet and so on. So we will look through all of that information but that has to be submitted well in advance usually by the November timeframe so that way we can get approval by December 1. Then we take that class and put that on our registration guide and registration forms so that way we can get approval,” King said.

The class will talk about great leaders, but not just great leaders in the military or politics. Heyn described some other leaders the students will learn about.

“To study great leaders in history and find out what made them so special we will look beyond the just historical leaders like Gandhi and George Washington, but also Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mother Teresa. Not only political leaders and military leaders but business leaders as well, so we can find out what makes them great,” Heyn said.

Heyn’s new class already has received some attention from the student body. Revere High School junior Thomas Baker mentioned why he decided to sign up and what he expects to learn from the class.

“I expect to learn about some of the great leaders like Ronald Reagan, and I decided to take this class because it seems like an interesting history class,” Baker said.

The History of Leadership class will actively engage students in the acquisition of information about historical and contemporary leaders. Students will be exposed to the nature of leadership through presentation of objective material, through group discussions, and through group activities. The students will keep a daily journal to write about a quote or paragraph. The class will last one trimester and is available to juniors and seniors.