Follow My Leader

Cultivating independence and cooperation makes for happier peer groups than an emphasis on “leadership”.

“Leadership skills” is a selling-point in school marketing. Certainly, “growing future leaders” and producing “global leaders” sounds relevant – a good outcome of elite schooling. Value for money. Strong kids ready to take on the world, as the brochures promise.

However, an honest audit reveals not a cache of confidence for children and teens, but its opposite: unnecessary rivalry in the peer group and anxieties about failure.

There is subtext that needs unpacking when we centre ‘leadership’ in the development of learners:

If ‘leadership’ is the most prized value in schools, then “leaders” are the most prized kids. This sets up our learners for a years-long tug-of-war over dominance and subservience in their peer group – impacting their self-esteem. It contrives competitiveness and favouritism. It detracts from learning. It shifts priorities.

The implication in ‘leadership’ – no matter how schools try to positively couch it or even conceal it – is hierarchy and power. A leader, by definition, must have followers. A leader commands a group. Every child and teen, ideally, wants this level of popularity and influence. Who wouldn’t? Nobody wants to be a follower, or to be seen as one.

Thus, if everyone is leading, no-one is following. And if no one is following, who is leading? It’s a recipe for chaotic jostling instead of authentic growth. 

Parents may believe ‘leadership’ implies discipline, accomplishment, entrepreneurship, or a toolbox of skills to wield later, in the world at large, but this isn’t so. It puts the cart before the horse.

Good education, instead, realizes two fundamental pillars of becoming: independence and cooperation.

Independence is personal agency and self-determination. This is everything from the ability to tie one’s own shoelaces to intrinsic motivation. It’s the taking of responsibility.  Cooperation is the deep understanding of the interrelatedness of ecosystems, both societal and environmental. Cooperation is ubuntu: “I am well if you are”.

The element of competition that is baked into every child’s ordinary day, from tests to teams, diminishes a great deal in their personal and social lives. It has a lot to answer for in terms of the mental health crisis in this generation.

(This is not to be confused with ‘excellence’. Excellence is a solitary pursuit: it concerns one’s own aptitude and ability; one’s own talents and interests. In this, the teacher supports each child in their own right, not as compared to their peers).

If children and adolescents are taught to lead lives of self-determination, supported by worthy peers and adults, who in turn lead such lives, the atmosphere is conducive to stability and mutual personal fulfilment. Schooling should not be a zero-sum game. It should be a haven of becoming. If leadership naturally emanates from that, it shall.

Engineering hierarchies of power amongst children is educationally unsound. It is mastery that confers success. It is competence that is empowering. This is education’s mandate.

Drawing attention to trends that contradict healthy childhood development, and healthy peer relationships, is an important part of teacher training. If you have any comments or corrections on this topic, or any others raised in TTL blog posts, please email: www.teachertraininglab@gmail.com.