Statements of Purpose

The focus of this lesson is the statement of purpose required for the BHS Senior Talk project. Every kind of project, however, benefits from a statement of purpose, whether that project is an essay or a presentation or a website. All meaningful work has a thesis or crux.

That word, thesis, has Greek roots meaning “a setting down, a placing, an arranging; position, situation.” The thesis of a work is the central staging or placement. It tells us what we’re dealing with.

The other term we’ll use is crux. The literal meaning suggests support and structure, but you really want the denotation of the word:

1. a puzzling or difficult problem : an unsolved question
2. an essential point requiring resolution or resolving an outcome
3. a main or central feature (as of an argument)

A statement of purpose or crux governs and organizes a project. It articulates the problem you’re addressing, the question you’re answering, the resolution you’ve reached. It is the difference between perfunctory work and authentic work.

The crux of a project is best determined through in-class collaboration and one-on-one conferencing. Your use of feedback is essential. Through that feedback, you are exploring questions similar to these:

1. Why does this work matter to you?
2. Why might it matter to others?
3. What is the potential message for your audience?
4. What is the potential lesson to be learned?

A statement of purpose is an explicitly required step in some projects, like those BHS Senior Talks. It is necessary in any research paper, of course, because you are either testing a hypothesis, defending a thesis, or solving a problem. A statement of purpose is also required for a commencement address or a self-prescribed book project. Even reflections and self-assessments can be perfunctory without a clear thesis.

Since all seniors complete a Senior Talk inspired, at least initially, by TED Talks, let’s look at some of those for examples of statements of purpose. First up: Ken Robinson’s “Changing Education Paradigms,” which is referenced and embedded repeatedly in this course. The RSA Animate excerpt ends like this:

We have to think differently about human capacity. We have to get over this old conception of academic, non-academic, abstract, theoretical, vocational, and see it for what it is — a myth. Second, you have to recognize that most great learning happens in groups, that collaboration is the stuff of growth. If you atomize people and separate them and judge them separately, we form a kind of disjunction between them and their natural learning environment. And thirdly, it’s crucially about the culture of our institutions, the habits of institution and the habitats that they occupy.

At its heart, Robinson’s purpose is to encourage a change in the culture and habits of schools. He argues that this requires a more individualized, responsive view of student potential; a focus on group learning and collaboration; and a reconnection between students and their learning environments.

Now let’s look at another TED Talk’s statement of purpose. This one is from Brené Brown, author of the excerpt on empathy we study during our empathy unit. In another speech, she discusses the power of vulnerability:

• The Power of Vulnerability – Brené Brown

RSA has animated an excerpt from this speech, which gives us a statement of purpose to study and to emulate:

It’s a short excerpt, barely more than three minutes long, but in that time it provides an excellent example of how to craft a statement of purpose. It is clear, concise, and insightful:

[Blame] has an inverse relationship with accountability. Accountability, by definition, is a vulnerable process. It means me calling you and saying, “Hey, my feelings were really hurt about this,” and talking. It’s not blame. Blame is simply a way that we discharge anger. People who blame a lot seldom have the tenacity and grit to hold people accountable, because we spend all of our energy raging for 15 seconds and figuring out whose fault something is. And blaming is very corrosive in relationships. And it’s one of the reasons we miss our opportunities for empathy.

Her purpose isn’t just to define blame; it’s to connect blame to vulnerability, empathy, tenacity, and grit. In this statement, Brown lays out the connections between those ideas in a succinct way: Blaming others erodes our empathy, hurts our relationships, and makes us weaker.

When crafting your own statements of purpose, use Brown as your model. Notice how it is built on the personal stories, research, and insights she uses — all in just that three-minute excerpt. The crux of any project you undertake should be at the same level.