Building a Better Future With Wisdom From the Past

The loneliness epidemic. Toxic social media. Teen depression and worse. These are modern problems. But the unmet needs that drive them are as old as time itself.

Young people have always tried to make sense of the world around them and hungered for meaning, purpose, adventure, belonging, wonder, self-expression, and most of all… safe passage to adulthood. These are essentials – not extras – if we want our children to become healthy, vital young adults. The founders of Spirit Series believe education must be built around meeting these timeless needs. By inspiring students to step forward. Take risks. Join. Contribute. And belong. Because if we don’t address their yearnings, TikTok and Instagram will.

Let’s Tend to the Spirit of Our Kids

Molly was 10 when her mother died. Suddenly, she was asking questions no child should have to confront: Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? Why am I the only one without a mom? 

Her father, screenwriter Richard Strauss, searched his daughter’s world for something that might help her deal with adversity and these daunting life questions. He found very little.

Out of that void, Spirit Series was born.

More than 25 years later, some 70,000 students have met the Spirit Series challenge as they study, co-write, stage, and perform inspirational one-act biographies that celebrate some of history’s greatest heroes and the wisdom their lives can teach. The Series looks like a drama program, but it aims to inspire something greater: the values, character, and confidence young people need to become engaged, civic-minded adults.

Students don’t simply read about Socrates, Benjamin Franklin, or the Buddha. They inhabit their lives, internalize their values, and ultimately perform their life stories in costumes to full auditoriums. All in three weeks. During regular school hours. “Nobody wants to be preached to,” Strauss says. “But if you engage them in a compelling story that conveys [positive] values, that’s something that’s easy for all of us to take in.”

The performance experience makes these lessons difficult to forget. Students in grades four to eight have now mounted more than 2,500 Spirit Series finales. Roles are cast by lottery. Every student participates. Every student matters. Every student is immersed. Teachers, assessing their classrooms before and after residencies, have reported improvements of 25 to 27% across key academic and social-emotional indicators, with declines in absenteeism as high as 36% in underserved schools.

Now the Series has added a seventh title, “The Founding,” a celebration of the civic virtue and spirit of compromise that forged our nation. Chronicling the challenges and triumphs of the Constitutional Convention, students are called to become citizens of their own classroom and assume the responsibilities that come when our own best interest depends upon the fate of us all.