Free library · Grades 3 to 6 in print

Leading is a set
of behaviors.
Behaviors can be taught.

Most children are told that some people are natural leaders. That framing is wrong and expensive: it tells the quiet child the door is closed, and the loud one that there is nothing left to learn.

These books treat leadership as a set of nameable behaviors and teach them one at a time. Grades 3 to 6 are written and free today: leading yourself, then one other person, then a small group, then a whole room, 36 weeks each, every week built around a short task done in the room. From Grade 7 its ideas belong to the web app program, with guest speakers and fireside chats in person.

This is the one strand we publish that is not really about business. It sits in the free library, beside the money and enterprise program. A thirteen-year-old who can structure an argument, read a room and carry a decision is better off everywhere, whether or not they ever start anything.

Written and free today

Four school years,
36 weeks each.

Grade 3 · 77 pages

Start With You

Notice what is going on in you, wait before you act, say one clear thing, and do what you said.

36 weekly practices, two pages each. Page 1 sets up a short task the class does in person, ten minutes at most, in pairs or groups of three or four. Page 2 is where the student writes what happened and a partner checks off what they saw. Nobody is scored, and the only comparison is week 35 against the same student’s week 1.

Grade 4 · 77 pages

Listen First

Hear one person out, say it back in your own words, disagree with the idea and not the person, and explain so they get it.

36 weekly practices with one other person, two pages each. Nearly every room task is a pair: wait for the real end, paraphrase, say their side first, give credit, teach one thing, and tell a one-minute story. A partner checks off what they saw, and the only comparison is week 35 against the same student’s week 1.

Grade 5 · 77 pages

Decide Together

Take a role in a small group, lay out the options, decide together, and carry out a decision you argued against.

36 weekly practices in a group of three or four, two pages each. The room tasks cover the three meeting roles, listing options, weighing claims and naming weak arguments, voting and consensus, doing your part, and a 90-second opinion speech. Every group task has a one-partner version, and the only comparison is week 35 against the same student’s week 1.

Grade 6 · 77 pages

Hold the Room

Take the floor, take questions from the room, and lead without being put in charge.

36 weekly practices in front of a room, two pages each. The room is three listeners and a speaker a few steps away, so no child has to face the whole class. The year covers openings, signposts, pace, taking questions, saying "not yet," speaking to an adult as an equal, and a 90-second informative presentation. Eye contact is never required, and the only comparison is week 35 against the same student’s week 1.

Each card on the resources page carries the teacher guide’s own description, including how its answers are checked.

From Grade 7

At their own pace, with a room to meet in.

The room is where this strand lives: guest speakers from business, fireside conversations, and students speaking to adults as equals. The web app carries the ideas; the sessions are where they get practiced. Grade 10 on the pathway is the year built around how a group of people gets work done.

Grades 7 to 12 · Grades 7 and 8 preview, adults only

The ideas a business school teaches, spread over six years instead of two, in a web app with nothing to install. Students work through the same written lessons at their own pace with Pip, an AI tutor that explains, asks questions and gives feedback. Pip teaches from lessons we write and check; it does not make up the course. The room is for what an app cannot do: guest speakers from business, and conversation about what is happening in it now. Each student picks one venture in Grade 7 and builds on it through Grade 12. Grade 7 is in the educator preview, Grade 8 beside it as a draft, Grades 9 to 12 next. No student has used it yet.

Grades 1–2

Does not run here

Grades 3–5

Published

Grades 3 to 5 complete: Start With You, Listen First and Decide Together, 36 weeks each.

Grades 6–8

Published

Grade 6 complete: Hold the Room, 36 weeks. From Grade 7, part of the web app program with in-person guest speakers, designed and not written.

Grades 9–12

Designed

Part of the Grades 7 to 12 web app program. Grade 10 is designed, not written. Grades 11 and 12 are planned.

The lessons for the Grades 7 to 12 web appAny assessment instrument, piloted or otherwiseA class that has run any of the four years

Why it is built this way

The decisions
behind it.

Behaviors, not traits

Every objective is written as something a student does, so it can be practiced and observed. "Be more confident" is not an objective. "Answer a question you were not expecting without filling the pause" is.

The quiet student is the point

A leadership program that rewards the child who already dominates the room has taught nothing. Change is measured from a student’s own starting point, not against the loudest person present.

No equipment to buy

The outline runs with a room, paper, and a phone camera if one is available. The web app needs a screen with a browser, nothing to buy or install. Whether every student can get to one is a question for the first pilot.

The three strands: the original design, not written

The outline below was written as an eight-week summer program, with a middle grades and a high school version, before summer programs were cut on October 21, 2026. The lessons that would let anyone teach it were never written and no student has worked through it. It is kept here because the design is real work and still says what this strand is for.

Leadership runs as three interleaved strands because the skills only work together. A student who can structure an argument but cannot read a room has learned debate, not leadership.

01Strand one

Emotional intelligence

Self-awareness, empathy, emotional regulation and social fluency. It runs first because every other skill degrades without it.

  • Self-awareness mapping and a personal SWOT
  • Reading the room: social and emotional cues
  • Conflict de-escalation and active listening
  • Regulating stress under high-stakes conditions

A written self-assessment the student revisits in week eight

02Strand two

Public speaking

Vocal presence, structured argument and the ability to hold a room. Built toward a five-minute talk with questions afterward, because the questions are where composure is tested.

  • Vocal projection, pace and deliberate silence
  • Body language and non-verbal signal
  • Structuring an argument: the PREP and story frameworks
  • Handling hostile or unexpected questions

A five-minute talk delivered to the class, with open questions

03Strand three

Executive presence

The teachable parts of what adults call presence: composure under pressure, decisive language, and leading without a title. This is the strand most rationed by family background, which is why it is here.

  • Posture, space and stillness
  • Decisive language, and why hedging reads as uncertainty
  • First impressions, and what is being read
  • Speaking to adults as an equal

A recorded before and after the student keeps

Written down in this design: the three strands, written as an eight-week summer outline; learning objectives written as observable behaviors; a difficulty split between a middle grades and a high school version.

Want the rest
written sooner?

What moves a year from designed to written is a district willing to run the first one and the funding to write the materials properly. If either is you, write to us.