Popular Culture Review Vol. 10, No. 2, August 1999 | Page 85

What Disney Teaches Our Children
About Leadership
Newspaper and television journalists pay considerable attention to work
place leadership and leadership in social/political arenas. Presidents, senators,
and corporate executives are constantly evaluated on their influence and deci
sion-making abilities. Leadership ability, however, is not bestowed upon indi
viduals as they assume positions of responsibility in adulthood; instead, leader
ship is a skill set recognizable and developed in childhood. Not only are leader
ship skills demonstrated in childhood, but an agreement regarding what charac
teristics constitute leadership exists between adults and children; Edwards found
that “children and their adult supervisors agree not only on who the leaders are,
but also on how those leaders present themselves” (925). Additionally, Edwards
found that leadership was most strongly associated with organizational skills,
goal orientation, and the ability to generate creative ideas (925).
In Landau’s and Weissler’s study of gifted children’s perceptions of lead
ership, once again, children identified and demonstrated leadership characteris
tics commonly believed by adults to be indicative of leadership: responsibility,
achievement orientation, persuasive powers, and especially, self-confidence (685).
Of particular significance was the strong association between leadership and de
cisiveness and daring (Laundau and Weissler 685). These authors concluded that
“leadership characteristics appear at a very early age in a form similar to that
evidenced among adults” (686).
Much of the learning and socialization process of children occurs through
indirect means such as modeling and role playing. Although human adult models
such as teachers, parents, and other adult relatives may be available, children
often learn from models provided in movies and cartoons. Television, video, and
movie watching continues to play an increasing role in the application of a child’s
waking hours. Heroes and heroines of the movie world not only speak to chil
dren as they watch the program, but the characters reinforce their messages each
time they appear on consumer items such as lunch boxes, sneakers, bed sheets,
umbrellas, and notebooks. In fact, cartoon characters continue to have a signifi
cant impact on children long after the movie has been supplanted by the next box
office hit.
One of the biggest influences on the socialization of children is the char
acter portrayals of the Disney cartoons. Disney cartoons continue to draw large
audiences, especially when charismatic characters are combined with engaging
musical scores. Many adults have fond childhood memories of attending Disney