Leadership in Action is one of the most useful classes that I have taken during my time in high school. We learn about group dynamics, public speaking, and what it means to be a leader.
One of the most important things that I took away from this class is balancing the information that you provide to those whom you lead. Some leaders have the mindset of full transparency, and others have a mindset of only telling people information on a “need-to-know basis”. Both of these inclinations are inherently flawed: full transparency inevitably leads to oversharing and an oversaturation of information, and heavy restrictions on information create a bitter feeling towards the leader just because it makes people feel lesser. This idea directly transfers over to our school’s administration, teachers, and staff, and the transparency with which they make the decisions they do.
By nature, humans, and especially teenagers, will be much more willing and prepared to follow and understand rules if they know why they were put in place. When I first heard about the new rules about the media center I was immediately filled with feelings of bitterness and resentment towards those rules, because they negatively affected me and my friends, and it was hard for me to see the need for these new policies. A few weeks later, I spoke to administrators and staff who were involved with this decision and after hearing about what they had to say on why they had made the decision (due to students abusing the PSEO system and inviting friends down to skip with them), I realized that if I had been in that situation, I likely would have made a very similar choice.
Those who dislike this suggestion are likely the type of people to say “because I said so” when asked “why” by others, and this way of thinking isn’t just a remnant of another era, but also just doesn’t hold up to any pressure. As I previously stated, when people know why a rule is in place, they are much more likely to be content following it. When we as students are given reasons for why rules are put in place, as mindless as it may sound, for the most part, we will follow many more rules without complaint and with an increased feeling of understanding between the student body and our administration.
