Core Value: PRIDE
We take pride in our identities and the impact we have on both individuals and larger society. We think not only about the here and now, but about the future as well, considering carefully how each choice we make will impact the future of our own lives as individuals and the future of our collective community.
About the Practice
Story of Self asks individuals to consider their values and frame a story from their experience that highlights a choice, a challenge, and an outcome. Crafting and sharing this story creates an experience where staff and students can reflect, embrace the personal power of framing and telling their own story, form deep connections, and exhibit our core value of pride.
At Putnam Avenue this process has been both modeled and experienced by staff members, who then replicated the process with their advisory students. For both staff and students all of this work drafting, revising, and practicing culminated in a science-fair style, school-wide Story of Self Day.
Criteria for Success
- A good public narrative is drawn from the series of choice points that have structured the “plot” of your life—the challenges you faced, choices you made, and outcomes you experienced.
- The power in your story of self is to reveal something of yourself and your values—not your deepest secrets, but the key shaping moments in your life.
- Your story models authentic fragility and honesty.
Criteria adapted from the works of Marshall Ganz, Harvard University.