Kids need to know how to lead, not just follow

• Source: Global Times
• [21:31 November 23 2009]
• Comments

Groups such as the "the Young Pioneer of China" seem to exist mostly to drag kids to political events. Unlike their Western counterpart, "young pioneers" rarely have team-building activities

Even the compulsory military training at the beginning of university is entirely orientated toward teaching the students to follow orders, not to give them. Its (optional) US equivalent, ROTC or Reserve Officers' Training Corps, in contrast focuses on identifying and training potential officers.

Paradoxically for a communitarian country, sport training here also tends to emphasize individual development, rather than working together as a team. This is visible in China's team sports perfor-mance in soccer and similar activities, which is far below its size and sporting capabilities elsewhere.

The examples set by superiors are also depressing. From my limited experience, it seems that long-term planning, goal-setting, and cooperation are rarely found inside Chinese businesses.

Instead, everything appears to operate at the individual level. Conferences are chaotic, unscheduled events, people only know they're going to meetings at the last moment, and grand schemes are embarked upon without having been thought through.

More optimistically, however, there appears to be a current shift toward more teamwork building activities and curriculum.

Chinese high school students are now able to take classes based around teamwork.

Television production is one such class. In this class students are challenged to create and build an original television program as a team.

Everyone is assigned a role. They lead, follow, and work as a team from the beginning to the final product.

Even if the students have no future in TV, they have successfully worked as a team. This ability can be applied to almost every field of employment.

Be it a wooden wall, a part-time job, or a sports team, American children are inundated with team building activities throughout their adolescent life.

These activities are only a supplement to an institutionalized emphasis on problem solving at both the individual and the group level.

There is a time to listen, a time to follow, and a time to lead. Now is China's time to lead.

The author is an American teacher working in Beijing. pointofdisgust@gmail.com