The Purpose Project: Who am I and why am I here?

Years ago, Ross Perot's presidential running mate, Admiral Stockdale, opened a vice presidential debate by saying, "Who I am and why am I here?"

I asked my senior English students to generate a subject they wanted to explore through the novels and other readings we would do this semester. (I told them that I could make most any book we read fit the subject.) After a full period of deliberation, they generated a ballot with various subjects, which they then voted on, settling overwhelmingly on the subject of purpose. 

We have read essays like Camus' "Sisyphus," and novels like Kafka's Metamorphosis, along with others, including Phillip Zimbardo's ideas about the time-paradox (and how it relates to our own happiness and send of purpose). 

This week we took The Purpose Project in a new direction which I hoped you might help us with: surveys. I showed them how to use SurveyMonkey to create a survey. They then created these surveys and posted them online via, for example, Facebook. 

Some of you have already responded to these. Here are a few final surveys (they take seconds to complete) for a few stragglers. Each offers a few questions that are different and thus, to me, interesting.

If you have a second, please click on one of more of the following, each of which will take you to a different survey to complete if you have a spare minute.

Thanks!

• Jackson's Survey
• Matt's Survey
• Vince's Survey
• Danielle's Survey
• Nicole's Survey
• Tommy's Survey

Comments

[Cris Crissman]

Congratulations to your seniors for their choice of purpose as a topic. This is one project they will never forget! Enjoyed the surveys and will look forward to results.

[Jrussellteacher]

This is a fantastic project! I am so glad that I could help. (I did all 4 :-)