Spotlight on: Stoic Week for Schools

Did you know that, alongside our classic version of Stoic Week, Modern Stoicism has a dedicated Stoic Week course just for teens? We developed this week-long course specifically for students, including age-appropriate lessons and examples. No registration is required. You can download the student handbook and instructor’s manual at any time. (It’s also available in Spanish.)

Topics covered in Stoic Week for Schools include:

• Emotions
• Resilience
• Friendship
• Nature and community
• Identity and character

The course is designed to be taught in a classroom format. For each day of the week (Monday-Friday), there is an introductory lesson, discussion questions, and supplemental materials with additional resources and reading. This is a great opportunity for teachers, parents, or youth mentors to discuss vital life lessons with their students—lessons that often are not covered in school curriculum.

The Stoic Week for Schools materials also lend themselves to being adapted for your particular needs. Depending on the specific context and the age(s) of the children you are teaching, you can either simplify the lessons or make them more in-depth by incorporating  philosophical readings from ancient Stoic texts. Either way, the provided student handbook and instructor’s manual offer an excellent starting point for exploring Stoic principles with teens.

With Stoic Week starting on Monday, October 27, this is a great time of year to give Stoic Week for Schools a try. If you work with children, you might like to have them do Stoic Week for Schools as you complete on our traditional Stoic Week course for adults. Remember: you have to register yourself to complete Stoic Week, but no registration is required to download the Stoic Week for Schools materials.

Below are two excerpts from the Stoic Week for Students handbook. These will give you an idea of what to expect from this unique course adapted especially for teens.

Asking Questions

Have you ever wondered what’s important in life, or what kind of person you should be? Have you thought about how to be happy, or how to make a difference in the world? Everyone wonders these things at some point in their lives. Actually, people have been asking themselves these questions since the beginning of civilization. Philosophers in many ancient cultures (like Greek, Chinese, and Indian) debated how to live a good life and how to be a good person. And we’re still talking about it today!

These questions are so complex and interesting that there are as many potential answers as there are people in the world. We each have to answer them for ourselves. And the way we answer those questions can influence the choices we make about life.

Let’s say your mobile phone is a year old. It’s getting slower but it still works fine. Now your best friend gets a new phone and you really want one. What decision would you make if you believe the following things?

• You believe it’s really important to always have the best new device.
• You believe it’s important to save money for the future.
• You believe it’s really important to impress your friends with your stuff.
• You believe your stuff isn’t as important as your inner qualities, like kindness and courage.

As you can see, your decision will be at least partly based on what you think is meaningful in life. That’s why it’s so important to think about these questions and try to answer them for yourself. We’re not asking you to make a final decision right now. Sometimes it takes many years for people to decide what their philosophy of life is! Right now we’re just asking you to start thinking about it.

Exploring Identity

You’re probably tired of that dreaded question: what do you want to be when you grow up? It seems that adults in our society never tire of asking kids. But Stoicism has a different question for you: who do you want to be when you grow up? In other words, what kind of person do you want to be? Courageous? Strong? Helpful? Resilient?

Stoics think that the career or job you end up doing isn’t nearly as important as the kind of person you are. In fact, Emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “What is your profession? To be a good person” (Meditations, 11.5). Let’s think about that for a minute. The Roman Emperor was the most powerful person in the world at the time. He had, to put it mildly, a great career. He was fabulously wealthy and could have almost anything he wanted. And yet, in his private journal, in his innermost thoughts, he reminded himself that none of that mattered as much as being a good person. All the wealth and power in the world can’t make you happy but being the right kind of person can.

Before we start our reading for today, think about how people decide what kind of person to be.
1. Do you get to decide what kind of person to be, or does someone else decide for you?
2. If you get to decide, how do you make such an important decision?
3. What influences you, or what could you use as a guide?
4. What are some character traits you would like to have, both now and as an adult?

Reading about Character

Today’s reading comes from Marcus Tullius Cicero, who was also one of the most famous and influential people of his time. In the passage below, he is writing to his teenage son, who was off studying with philosophers in Athens – the ancient equivalent of studying at university.

Cicero was very ambitious and had high expectations for his son. (He keeps annoyingly reminding his son that he expects him to follow in his father’s footsteps and have an illustrious career. And in fact, Cicero junior did go on to become influential and respected in his own right.) So the advice given here doesn’t conflict with having a good career – in fact, it might help you choose one. But the point is that your career choice is only one part of who you are, and certainly not the most important part.

Let’s look at how Cicero describes these four aspects of our character, or four components of our identity.

Nature has endowed us with what we may call a dual role in life. The first is that which all of us share by virtue of our participation in reason…The other is that which is assigned uniquely to each individual, for just as there are great variations in physical attributes (for we see that some can run faster and others wrestle more strongly, or again, one has an imposing appearance, while another’s features are graceful), so our mental makeup displays variations greater still…

To the twin roles I mentioned earlier, a third is added when some chance or circumstance demands it; and there is also a fourth which we attach to ourselves by our own studied choice. Regal powers, kingships, military commands, noble birth, riches, resources—and the opposite of these – are a matter of chance, depending on circumstances. On the other hand, the role which we should like to play is prompted by our own choice. So some devote themselves to philosophy, others to civil law, and others again to eloquence; and even in the practice of the virtues different people prefer different ones at which to excel…

But above all we must establish who and what kind of person we wish to be, and what pattern of life we wish to adopt.

Cicero, On Duties, 1.107-1.117

Activity

Now let’s think about the only one of the four characters you can control: your personal choices. As you fill in the table below, remember all the topics we’ve discussed throughout this week (emotions, resilience, friendship, community, and nature).

What are my talents and personality traits?
What are my personal interests?
What opportunities do I have to apply my talents and interests, now and in the future?
What choices can I make about my life now and my future?
What challenges might I face as
I make those choices?
What personal characteristics do I have that will help me overcome those challenges?

Discussion

Now that you’re familiar with the four characters, what do you think?
1. Do you agree with Cicero’s four characters?
2. Are they helpful?
3. Can you use the four characters to make decisions about who you want to be, both now and in the future?
4. Imagine you’re 30 years old and looking back at the decisions you made as a teenager. What advice would you give your younger self?

If you’d like to share Stoicism with the young people in your life, you can download the materials and learn more about Stoic Week for Schools here.