For the sake of what?

Learning intention By the end of this lesson, students can connect an everyday action with something it may serve and describe purpose as a changing sense of direction rather than one fixed answer.

This classroom lesson is the base for session 1 of Ten sessions for advocates.

Time: 41 minutes
How the room works: Groups of four
You need: Paper, pens and a board
Opens with: For the sake of what

Before you start

Keep group examples hypothetical and personal writing private. Questions about purpose may connect with hopelessness or family pressure.

Read the full safeguarding note Adapting it for your class A note home for this lesson

A person sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed, leaves drifting around them — Illustration by RecipesforWellbeing.org, CC BY-NC 4.0

Why this matters

When tasks and expectations pile up, it can be difficult to remember what any of them are for. Purpose asks what an action serves and whether that direction still matters to us. It can be small, uncertain and shared with others; no young person is expected to identify one grand reason for their life.

Skill in context Aligning with an aspiration that offers meaning and direction.

On the skill of purpose Try the interactive practice

1

Open with “For the sake of what”

5 min

Use For the sake of what as a private question. Students may find a large reason, a practical reason or no answer yet.

Read aloud

Choose one thing from today that you care about doing with attention, however ordinary it may be.

Ask yourself quietly, "For the sake of what?" Who or what might this action serve?

Follow the answer one step deeper if that feels useful. A small reason counts, and "I am not sure" is complete.

Keep the answer private and notice whether it changes how you see the task.

Listen for Do not read silence or stillness as evidence that the question has landed. Make uncertainty and a practical reason fully acceptable.

2

Teacher explanation

10 min

Purpose can be understood as a compass rather than a complete map. It offers a direction, but it does not specify every turn or guarantee that the route will remain the same.

The same action may serve connection, independence, care, curiosity, security or someone else's expectation. Asking what it is for can help us see whether the action feels chosen, imposed or mixed. Purpose cannot make unreasonable work reasonable, and people may need material support and wider change before a sense of direction is possible.

Questions for the room

Why might the same action feel meaningful to one person and empty to another?
What makes people lose contact with what an activity is for?
Where does pressure to have a life purpose figured out come from?

3

The why ladder

17 min

Model a neutral action on the bottom rung of a ladder, then ask "For the sake of what?" three times to explore possible values beneath it.
Groups choose a low-disclosure action such as learning to cook, saving money, practising a sport, studying or supporting a friend.
Build at least three rungs, allowing branches where different reasons are possible.
Mark which parts depend on personal choice and which depend on resources, other people or wider conditions.
Each group shares only one top rung, and the class notices where different ladders meet or remain different.
Students privately take one ordinary action from their week and ask the question once, with "not sure yet" available.

4

Private reflection

6 min

Choose one ordinary thing you will do this week. For whose or what sake might you do it, and is that reason one you want to keep?

How they reflect Private journal

5

Closing

3 min

Purpose does not need to arrive as one large answer. For now, it may be enough to ask what the next action serves and allow the answer to keep changing with you.

Safeguarding

Keep group examples hypothetical and personal writing private. Questions about purpose may connect with hopelessness or family pressure. Do not explore this publicly; offer a quiet check-in and follow usual safeguarding and pastoral procedures.

If something a young person says gives you concern, follow your setting’s usual safeguarding route. This is not yours to carry alone.

Adapting it

Ages 13 to 15: Use concrete actions and limit ladders to three rungs. Repeat that uncertainty is not a problem to solve in the lesson.
Ages 16 to 18: Include study, work, money and transitions beyond school, while questioning the expectation that every decision must express one settled purpose.

In other settings

Form time: Use the private question, then build one three-rung ladder together from a neutral action.
Assembly: Model a branching ladder on screen and keep the audience's own answers private.
Small group: Build several ladders conversationally and notice how the same action can serve different or mixed purposes.

Curriculum connections

Australia, Personal and Social Capability: Self-awareness: personal awareness; Self-management: goal settingChecked by AI review against Australian Curriculum Version 9.0, General capabilities: Personal and Social capability, its elements and sub-elements on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
Brazil, BNCC: Work and life project (GC 6) — choices aligned with one's life project, with autonomy and critical awarenessNot yet checked against its source.
Canada, BC Core Competencies: Positive Personal and Cultural Identity — personal values and choices; Personal Awareness and Responsibility — ethical decisionsNot yet checked against its source.
Canada, Ontario HPE: Personal skills — using personal strengths and values to guide decisions (1.1) · Gr 7–8: A1.5 (sense of mattering and purpose)Not yet checked against its source.
Chile, Orientación: Personal growth — comparing life-project alternatives (OA 1, 1°–2° medio); Managing learning — interests, motivations (OA 9, 7°–8°)Not yet checked against its source.
England, PSHE: Living in the wider world: learning skills, values (KS3 L2)Checked by AI review against the PSHE Association's Programme of Study for PSHE education, Key stages 1 to 5, 2020 wording (read from a school-hosted copy, 2023/24) on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
Finland, Transversal competences: L1 Thinking and learning to learn — ethical thinking about the good life; L6 — choices grounded in one's own interestsNot yet checked against its source.
Ghana, Core competencies: Personal Development and Leadership — self-knowledge, dreams and aspirationsNot yet checked against its source.
Hong Kong, Values Education: Life education (生命教育) — seeking the meaning of life (S1–S3); clear goals and aspirations (S4–S6)Not yet checked against its source.
India, NEP: Ethical decisions (NEP 4.28); Socio-emotional learning (NEP 5.14)Checked by AI review against the National Education Policy 2020, final English text (July 2020, the PIB-hosted copy) on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
Indonesia, Graduate profile: Independence (kemandirian) — taking responsibility for one's own developmentNot yet checked against its source.
Ireland, Junior Cycle Wellbeing: Aware — knowing my personal values and thinking through my decisionsNot yet checked against its source.
Japan, Courses of Study: Moral education — deepening thought about one's way of life (人間としての生き方); Special activities — career formation and self-realisationNot yet checked against its source.
Kenya, Competency-based curriculum: Self-efficacy — setting and pursuing personal, family and community goalsNot yet checked against its source.
Mexico, Nueva Escuela Mexicana: Building a life project — interests, strengths and goals for personal and collective well-beingNot yet checked against its source.
New Zealand, Health and PE: Hauora: taha wairua (values and beliefs; the search for meaning and purpose in life)Not yet checked against its source.
Scotland, Health and wellbeing: Planning for choices and changes — relevance of learning to future opportunities; informed choices about life (HWB 3-19a)Checked by AI review against Education Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence, Health and wellbeing: experiences and outcomes on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
Singapore, CCE: SEC: self-awareness and responsible decision-making; Becoming my Best SelfChecked by AI review against MOE's 2021 Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) Syllabus, Secondary on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
South Africa, Life Orientation: Social and environmental responsibility — personal mission statement and vision (Gr 12); World of work — work and personal potential (Gr 7)Not yet checked against its source.
United States, CASEL: self-awareness; responsible decision-makingChecked by AI review against the CASEL Framework (2020), as published on casel.org on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
European Union, LifeComp: P1 Self-regulation — a sense of purpose that supports learning and action (P1.3); L3 Managing learning — purposes (L3.3)Not yet checked against its source.
Middle East and North Africa, UNICEF life skills: Self-management — motivation rooted in what matters; Decision-making — weighing personal choice and wider conditionsNot yet checked against its source.
IB, ATL: Self-management: reflection skills; Self-management: organisation skills (planning towards personal goals)Checked by AI review against the IB's MYP: From principles into practice, Approaches to learning (for use from September 2014/January 2015, a school-hosted copy) on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
OECD Learning Compass: Attitudes and values; Student agency & co-agencyChecked by AI review against the OECD Learning Compass 2030 concept notes Skills for 2030 and Core Foundations for 2030 (2019) on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
UNESCO SEL: Critical Inquiry (tracing actions back to deeper reasons)Checked by AI review against MGIEP's page naming the four competencies, with their definitions from summaries of Rethinking Learning (MGIEP, 2020), which could not be opened on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
WHO life skills: Self-awareness — recognising what one values; Decision making — whether an action still serves that valueNot yet checked against its source.
Inner Development Goals: Being: Inner Compass; Thinking: Long-Term Orientation and VisioningChecked by AI review against the Inner Development Guide's 25 skills across 5 dimensions (idg.guide, 2025) on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.
Sessions for advocates, capacities: Understand self: the base for session 1Checked by AI review against the three capacities of Ten sessions for advocates, as the sessions on /advocates/ name them on 10 October 2026, not yet by a human adviser.