8 Year Home
  8 Year Web Project
 Introduction
I Study Launched
II Schools Choose
  III Curriculum-Needs
   Traditional
Barriers
Students-Learn
Careers
Common-Problems
Other Curriculum
Youth-Study
Schools-Help
Gifted-Intellects
The-Arts
Youth-Search
Two-Forces
Changes
Democratic
New-Materials
Problem-Solving
Pioneering
 Footnotes
IV-Schools-Study-Pupils
V In College?
VI We Learned
Appendix
 Index
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Along with the urge for expression by doing, youth are seeking some sure foundation for purposeful living. Every study of adolescent concerns reveals youth's need to find meaning in life. Some express this desire more freely than others, but it seems to be a deep-seated concern of all young people. They feel the mystery of the universe. Their thoughts dwell often upon birth, life and death, eternity and immortality. They say they want something to believe in, .,something to live by."
Most of the participating schools, ' in co-operation with home and church, are trying to meet this need. There are marked differences in their attempts to help young people to find meaning for their lives. Some teachers are able to help students with this problem through the subjects they teach. The English teacher draws upon literature for what others have thought and written about the meaning of existence. The science teacher helps his students to consider the facts and laws of science in relation to human life. The history teacher leads his students to inquire into the meaning of man's long struggle to sin-vive and control his environment. Through these and otber approaches students are sometimes able to develop a satisfying personal philosophy or point of view.
In some of the core curriculums there are units of study designed to help students reach their own tentative conclusions relative to the meaning of existence. A few schools, in response to student requests, provide for some study of religions by'attendance at services in various churches and by discussions of beliefs with religious leaders.- Three of the Thirty Schools were founded and are now conducted by religious Societies.24 In these schools and in a few other private schools, religious instruction is an essential part of the curriculum. None of the schools attempts to impose a set of beliefs upon its students, but every school recognizes its responsibility for helping young people in their search for design in living.
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