ARLINGTON — While Martin Luther King Jr. offered many moral lessons through his example, the leadership students of the Stillaguamish Valley Learning Center have studied how he acted as a leader.
Four of the leadership students presented their findings to the Arlington School Board Jan. 11, characterizing King’s leadership style as both collaborative and directive.
“He would take other people’s ideas and put them into his own words,” junior Piper Lee said. “He would lead marches and show others the way, but he made sure other people’s voices were heard.”
Sophomore Andrew “Roo” Strom added: “Leading rallies is obviously a very directive effort, but it was also collaborative in the sense that he was involved in the movement on a hands-on level.”
Lee and Strom were joined by sophomores Danielle Rodriguez and Tessa Bartlett in reciting a number of King’s quotes, while Strom answered most of the board members’ questions.
Strom explained that he’d studied the leadership styles of not only King, but also Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, which prompted laughter from the crowd when he admitted this as an unusual combination of historical figures to be grouped together.
“We’ve learned a lot about how King conducted himself, in the way he spoke in public,” Strom said. “He spoke clearly and confidently, in statements that were well thought-out. We’ve tried to do the same.”
