For every event or object in this world, there is usually an “essential” that pairs up with it perfectly—think coffee and milk, movie and popcorn, or basketball and teamwork. In the world of education, one of the essentials is leadership. The two are virtually inseparable in modern schooling systems. One definition of leadership is the ability to provide direction and influence to a group of people. In the context of a school, student leadership is demonstrated in such ways as hosting a school club or founding a non-profit organization. Regardless of whether an educational institution is a high school or a university, a bigname Ivy League or a small regional college, it is almost guaranteed that the theme of “leadership” appears in their core values. Today, student leadership is emphasized as more-than-important for recognition and as a qualification for university applications, but I maintain that this perceived value is ultimately counter to leadership as the skills students learn are anything but what is intended.
In high school, students are directly rewarded in multiple ways for showing leadership. This is often seen through a form of points system that tracks students’ activities and leadership throughout the school year. For instance, high schools that group students into houses (e.g., Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin) use house point systems to measure how the student body (or an individual student) is engaging in co-curriculars. However, participation is worth much less than a leadership role in such events. That is, a student who hustles to attend ten after-school clubs would accumulate fewer points than a student who runs two clubs. The system is set up in such a way because the school wants to spread the message that leadership is highly valued. Such a narrative is promoted even in classrooms, as teachers often encourage students to lead a discussion by adding this skill into the rubric or the report card. Even when teachers do not agree with the school on its emphasis on leadership, they know that fostering the quality of leadership helps their students gain critical opportunities in further education.
When high school students aim at post-secondary education, they often scour college websites to learn about admission requirements. Almost every Ivy League’s website displays the theme of leadership on the page entitled “Our Values” or “Our Students.” A Forbes article highlights, “Yale’s website advises applicants that it seeks ‘the leaders of their generation’; on Princeton’s site, ‘leadership activities’ are first among equals on a list of characteristics for would-be students to showcase.” The specific value and purpose of leadership are not rationalized to students and parents, but the institutions directly indicate how much value leadership adds to an application. At this point, a student who decides to gamble for Yale admissions would begin looking for ways to exhibit leadership qualities to increase the odds of waking up to a mid-March acceptance letter.
As a consequence of students learning about the importance of appearing to be a leader, many resort to a form of “zombie leadership” out of desperation. In other words, students show leadership through certain events simply because they are given leadership titles, yet there is little motivation and purpose behind these titles. For example, a high school has a well-established Asian Student Club amidst the trend of hate crimes against Asians, but a student, in desperation of wanting a title to add to the Yale application, decides to start a South-Asian Student Club. This is a case of “zombie leadership” because the student fabricated a leadership opportunity for their own good. Furthermore, it potentially reverses the progress of social justice made by the school as one central club could better mobilize support.
Similar to how zombies crave human brains, some students crave leadership experiences due to the competitive nature of university applications, the end result being a few students grabbing all of the leadership roles on the table. Either due to the introverted personality of a student or the scarcity of resources at a school, starting a new club is not always possible, so students instead apply to become execs in other people’s clubs in order to compensate. A phenomenon created in this environment is “leadership cannibalization,” which describes the behaviour of students who already have multiple leadership roles and are able to obtain more of them at the expense of others. In other words, one student gobbles up leadership positions to ensure a stellar resume while leaving only scraps for classmates. This phenomenon is possible because club presidents tend to choose as execs the candidates with more experience, so the student who snaps up positions at an early stage would find continuous access to even more, thanks to this accumulation of leader experience. Such cannibalization of leadership positions denies some students opportunities to gain experiences while benefiting those who have already accumulated more than they need.
Viewed from the outside, the leadership focus within modern schooling systems appears to be beneficial as it encourages students to start meaningful initiatives while they develop their personal skill sets. Deep inside, the system cultivates abuses because there simply aren’t enough purposeful leadership roles for all the students. In reality, we can’t all be CEOs. In and of itself, leadership is beneficial and can expand a student’s skill set, but under this faux-leadership system, a toxic effect is created as leadership pivots from a method of organization and management to a situation in which students feel the need to gain advantage over classmates and colleagues. We have learned to cannibalize each other’s experiences to accomplish the goals to which the system has taught us to aim.
Tony Qu
Tony is a grade 11 student at Crescent School in Toronto. He enjoys writing and academics at school, and balances these interests by playing basketball and cycling in his free time. In the future, he hopes to study life sciences at a Canadian university.
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Winter 2022 issue.