The Discovery -Ism Project

Photo Credit: **Thomas Hawk**

Introduction

I want you to know who you are, completely. I want you to be able to stand up to people who disagree with you, and I want you to know that you are right. I want you to enter high school with an absolute confidence that no one will be able tear down or cut through. More than anything else, I want your voice to be clear as crystal when you say, “I am me.”

I suppose that these are rather lofty goals, but I don’t believe that they are unattainable. Some of you may think that you already possess such traits: confidence, infinite knowledge of self, and well-defined principles. I don’t doubt that some of you have thought long and hard about who you are. It seems almost natural, an effortless trait that comes along with being identified Gifted and Talented. I wonder, in an ironic way, if you could be so simple-minded and devoid of personality that you find yourself with no other conclusions to come to or with no more beliefs left untested. Do you know yourself so well that your –ism is already followed as a universal life plan incapable of being refuted? If so, my apologies for having to go through this monotonous exercise of definition. I bow to your superior powers of life experience and self-knowledge.

Others of you may believe that all of your personality and life-long aspirations will just take care of themselves as time goes by. I say to you naysayers what Socrates said to a jury in Athens around 2400 years ago, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” In defending his life from the charges of heresy and sedition, Socrates told his peers that he would rather die than not think for himself and know himself. He said that if he could not do these things, the world around him was unknowable and not worth being a part of. At the very least, we should pay homage to this act of courage. This project will help you to decide which beliefs you hold so dear that you would die for them (or at least fight to keep them).

Now, lets figure out how you can live up to such a legacy.

The Task:

Students will create their belief structure by completing a series of activities that are meant to reveal over time the different aspects of their beliefs. The activities are all outlined on the template page, but for specific reference, here are the requirements for this project: