A Path to Purpose

By Suzanne Fields
Friday, June 06, 2008

"The Path to Purpose" sounds like the title of an autobiography of Barack Obama or John McCain. But it's not. It's a sad story about children who never get started on that path. These are children of the "purposeless" generation, and if that sounds too broad, the problem is broad enough. By one estimate, a quarter of our children who should be launched into adulthood with a sense of purpose in their lives instead are singing a reprise of "Gimme Shelter," that hymn to the self-indulgence of the '60s. You could call them the "boomerangers." Instead of moving on, they keep coming back.

William Damon, a human behavior scholar and director of the Center on Adolescence at Stanford University, in his book scolds society for indulging the young rather than instilling a sense of responsibility. Many who set out to "find themselves" put off the search by delaying a purposeful career. Others, bewildered by their choices, can't connect the dots between what they know and where they want to go. One of the reasons, Damon suggests, is that education offers "bits" and "pieces" of information without relating them to a higher aspiration. Teachers rarely discuss a broader purpose. the rest