Seven Ways to Help High Schoolers Find Purpose: Support Every Student to Find Their Purpose
When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
– Alexander Den Heijer
INTRO
Your vision of student readiness gives students a clear understanding of the skills they are gaining throughout their school day, but how each student will use those skills in their future should be personalized to what they want to do and be in the future.
“To have a sense of purpose, it is essential that you know yourself: what you want from your life–not what others want for you, or what is expected of you–but what actually makes you come alive. If we deny our students the chance to really explore who they are, they lose out on their chance for purposefulness.”
OBJECTIVES
- This activity will help your team analyze current efforts to ensure a robust multi-tiered continuum of support is in place for your students.
The below activity is designed for teachers and your leadership team.
Read this article on Seven Ways to Help High Schoolers Find Purpose by Patrick Cook-Deegan, and record your thoughts on the below prompts.
Examine if each of your students can identify the three interrelated factors essential to fostering purpose:
1) Their skills and strengths
2) What the world needs
3) What they love to do
Are the supports and opportunities each student is receiving both in and out of the classroom aligned to their skills and strengths, what the world needs, and what they love to do?
Responses