In an attempt to focus our goals, to identify the ways that we as individuals in an imperfect system might affect the larger whole, in spite of evils and powers seemingly greater than ourselves, I asked my students to create a personal mission statement for their lives. I asked them to identify the ways they could approach their life so that they could be proud and be agents of change.
It is idealistic in many ways, but is it so wrong to ask teenagers to get in touch with their idealism?
Here is what I came up with...
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The way I might personally better the larger whole is by working with young adults in a real and truthful way. Through theater and dance, I can teach students skills and encourage their artistry and teamwork. I can help young adults and adults work together toward a common goal. Through teaching, I can encourage students to explore and discuss issues pertinent to them and to the world they live in. I can use literature, past and present, to help students evaluate where we've been, where we are, and where we are going as a society; I can help them begin to define their place in a large and complex history. I can help them communicate effectively, through written and spoken word, and I can help them evaluate information to make them more literate social beings.
If, by the time my students leave high school, they have learned the importance of...
**Listening more, talking less.
**Thinking for themselves.
**Reading more.
**Expressing themselves clearly, uniquely, and truthfully.
...I will have succeeded.
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