The following is a guest post from Director of Financial Operations Justin Wenger. Justin is a former Leadership Consultant and Director of Education for the General Fraternity staff.
Candidate education is a rite of passage, and there is nothing inherently wrong with looking at it as such. The issue, though, is how a chapter administers that rite. Joining any values-based organization is going to involve a rite of passage because values-based organizations aren’t interested in mediocrity. Values-based organizations are looking for leaders; men of honor and high moral character.
Why is your best friend, your best friend? I doubt it’s because of how many push ups he can do, or how many beers he can drink. If fraternities utilize these types of rites of passage, then fraternities suffer the realities of living up to their stereotypes. But, if we apply our values to developing the rite of passage that is candidate education, then we can be assured that the young leaders identified as candidates for membership will further develop to become brother-leaders; members who have built relationships on who they are as men, rather than how well they take being yelled at.
This post is part of a series dedicated to providing answers to common excuses for hazing. The #40Answers in 40 Days campaign aims to promote National Hazing Prevention Week (September 20 – 25, 2010) and to ultimately create the definitive collection of crowdsourced knowledge to eliminate hazing.
Serve in the Light of Truth 