Schools don’t give students adequate opportunities to learn how to lead.
The students lead anyway.
They lead anyway, because they are called, because they are passionate, because someone needs to.
Today I was lucky to attend one of many events nationwide on the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. Students led, in ways small and large:
They led by sharing their music and singing with their hearts.
They led by organizing booths for voter registration, for environmental action, for the local Sportsman Club, for students to write letters to relatives of school violence victims.
They led by creating an opportunity for students to gather and try to grapple with the forces at work in the world, and to help teenagers find ways to add their own voice to the conversation.
They led with speeches to hundreds and hundreds of fellow students – speeches from the heart, inspiring and passionate.
Students don’t get taught how to lead.
They lead anyway.
(Full disclosure: the event I attended, alongside many hundreds of Rockford High School students, was organized and led by several students, including my own remarkable niece, a senior in high school.)