#EGHSRI Student Work Series: Current American Issues

All this week we will be posting exemplars of student work. We hope you enjoy seeing some of the amazing work our students create daily here at East Greenwich High School.

From Mrs. Driscoll's Current American Issues Class

Prompt:  After Reading the Good Soldiers evaluate what it means to be a good leader.  Was the main character Sargent Ralph Kauzlarich a good leader?  Use evidence from the text to support your response.

            To be a leader, one must be able to evaluate a situation and decide what is the best course of action for yourself and those you are responsible for.  A good leader is one who is able to determine what to do in order to receive the best possible outcome.  Being a leader in the military is, in my mind, one of the most difficult responsibilities one can have.  A military leader is responsible for making decisions for a group of people who are fighting for our entire nation.  Many things are incorporated into being a good leader.  They must decide what to do next if they made the wrong decision, and not let that get in the way of what they decide to do next.  They must determine what type of relationship they will have with the soldiers they are leading.  They must respect you but at the same time it helps if they like you.  Being a good leader is a skill that many cannot obtain.  However, I believe Kauzlarich was able to prove himself as a great leader. 

            A leader is one who can take the worst situation and find the little dime of hope that his people need.  This is exactly what Kauzlarich did in Iraq.  “He would take in eastern Baghdad inhale its bitter, burning air, and say, its all good.”  This is just one example of how Kauzlarich is able to find one small rose in a pile of rubble.  While the other soldiers were waking up wishing they were safe at home, Kauzlarich, missed home too, but was able to keep a positive outlook on the given conditions.  Kauzlarich did not think of himself above others just because of his ranking.  “The greatest leaders of previous wars may not have had sewers, but Kauzlarich was determined to in his version, and in a meeting in mid-May he made it clear his desire to succeed.”  This illustrates that Kauzlarich is a good leader because he does not judge himself by the success of others.  He does what he needs to do in order to be the best leader he can be even if his expectations are above and beyond what may seem possible.

            A leader must also be a role model.  Kauzlarich had soldiers that looked up to him not only as a leader, but as a person.  “Part of command is to know a soldier only well enough to send him into battle, but once an injury occurred, that soldier became unforgettable to Kauzlarich.”  To me, this is how a leader in war should be.  You cannot become too close to your soldiers, but you must have a heart.  Kauzlarich was a man who was able to control when to use his heart and when to use his head.  Kauzlarich was a leader that motivated his battalion to keep fighting.”  In every case the soldiers continued to fight.  The good soldiers, as far as Kauzlarich was concerned, had become “great soldiers.”  The soldiers may have been great but they could not have become great without a great leader.  That leader was Sargent Ralph Kauzlarich.