<p>While I'm venting - I think it's kind of nutty and counter to good social constructs the way schools obsess about getting "student leaders." There are lots of great kids who are good at things, and who are in fact good at FOLLOWING or helping things happen, without having to be boss. My daughter is a very Type-A individual. She went to Israel on a Bronfman Fellowship in high school - Bronfman selects for "leaders" - and gave a hilarious account of how this group of Leaders could never get anything done well because everybody wanted to be boss. One proof of this was their hideous team-spirit T-shirt which had been co-designed by the whole bunch of them, nobody willing to yield, with decidedly un-aesthetic results. Now at college, my daughter reports that her friends all talk, all the time, trying to dominate the conversations with each other by yelling authoritatively at the top of their lungs and trying to avoid other peoples' interruptions. She enjoys this hugely but I'm a little put off by it... anyway, here's to the Type-Bs, the quiet people, the people who do things on their own or help other people achieve visions, who are good team players. </p>
<p>This reminds me of a great story our rabbi told once about an apocryphal sculling team at a yeshiva. They kept losing their races and finally sent a spy to watch another team's rowing practice. The spy came back very excited. "Now I understand! We have been doing it exactly backwards! In THEIR boat, 12 people row and one person shouts!"</p>