This episode features a conversation with Casey Petit, Director of Strategic Partnerships for Project Wayfinder, an organization the seeks to increase adolescent engagement in education through purpose and belonging. To me, purpose is the key missing ingredient for most young people in their post graduation planning process. Without purpose, students can't answer the question "why" in a way that is satisfactory to themselves, and without an adequate why, the external voices take over trying desperately to make them care. The irony is that the more the external voices exert themselves, the less engaged and more stressed out the student becomes. If you are curious as to why purpose matters, begin here.
Last June, I participated in the Project Wayfinder Summer Institute to become a facilitator of the Purpose Curriculum and will be rolling it out this year with our grade 10 students in the hopes that it will lay the necessary purpose groundwork for an engaged post graduation planning process in years 11 and 12. This conversation took place before that institute and my belief in the mission of Project Wayfinder has only deepened since.
