“Share a smile with other people and a smile will return to you.” These words from an old Russian folksong prompted Alexey Kondakov, a sixteen-year-old high school student in Russia, to pen an essay about how maintaining good cheer helped him recover from a fractured spine.

Maya Angelou’s observation, “if you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded,” caused Jacinda A. Palmer, a nineteen-year old college student in America, to write a remembrance of what she learned about the AIDS epidemic when she traveled to Zambia.

Jacinda and Alexy were among the nearly 100,000 children in fifty countries around the world last year who participated in the Laws of Life Essay Contest. “Laws of life” are maxims that speak to core human values. Introducing young people to how these thoughts can help form character is the goal of the Laws of Life Essay Contest. One of the oldest programs developed by the John Templeton Foundation, it will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Many educators believe pondering wise sayings can give a voice to a reticent child, bolster literacy and composition skills, as well as improve relations between students, teachers and communities.

That’s because, for youth especially, there is power in pithiness, suggested Dr. Maurice Elias, a professor of Psychology and Jewish Studies at Rutgers University, and director of Rutgers’ Social and Emotional Learning Laboratory. Elias, who for the past three years has studied the efficacy of the Laws of Life contest said, “It is about summarization. Laws of Life are small things we carry around with us. But when these small things become connected to our identity, then they have a forming, shaping and catalytic influence.”

Sir John Templeton envisioned the first Laws of Life Essay contest to show appreciation to his hometown for the sound training it gave him as a boy. In 1987, he offered the youth of Winchester, Tennessee an opportunity to study and write about wise sayings that were important to them. Those judged to be the most meaningful essays were awarded cash prizes and made available to the public.

“The world operates on moral and spiritual principles just as it does on the laws of physics and gravity. It is up to us to learn what those principles are and then live by them,” said Sir John, who is known to fill the margins of his books such as Wisdom from World Religions with favorite maxims.

The contest offers young people an opportunity for self-discovery. By considering their own life experience in the larger perspective of the Laws of Life - such as love, family, perseverance, helping others - students make these values their own. Peggy Veljkovic, director of the program explains, “They are asked to express from the wellspring of their experience. They already have this knowledge, you see, but can actualize it by declaring what they stand for in a written document.” A teen author might say that writing the essay helps them “get it.”

Two anthologies Writing from the Heart: Young People Share Their Wisdom (2001) and Teen Ink: What Matters (2003) feature prize-winning essays from the Laws of Life Contest. Edited by Peggy Veljkovic and Arthur Schwartz, director of Character Development Programs at the Templeton Foundation, these collections capture what matters most to young people, in their own words. With courage and honesty the authors write about life as they know it, about who they are, and the values they embrace. “What has struck me over the years is that what unites us is so much greater than what divides us,” said Veljkovic. “Regardless of religion, nationality or ethnicity, young people write about the same sorts of things.”

The program is designed to share great ideas as broadly as possible. Using materials provided by the Foundation, sponsors around the world raise prize money and design contests to suit their local requirements. Sponsors range from individuals, foundations and groups like the Kiwanis Clubs and Boy Scouts, to universities and colleges like Casper College in Wyoming, which supports the contest in all 49 high schools statewide.

What began as a program for high school students has expanded to include people of all ages - from elementary school children up to senior citizens. In some cases, participants are supplied with a list of potential wise sayings to write about; in others, they are encouraged to discover maxims on their own. The common thread is that all programs provide a chance for self-discovery.

Contests have had a particularly profound effect in the world’s developing nations observed Alice Chou, a board member of Junior Achievement International who oversaw the introduction of the Laws of Life program into China.

Due to China’s thriving economy, students there are bombarded with messages about single-mindedly pursuing a career and making money. Thus, Chou notes, “It’s crucially important for us to reach these young people and say ‘stop for a moment,’ and let’s consider what apart from materialism is important and meaningful.”

“Chinese students are highly pressured to study-study-study for college preparation. Extracurricular activities, sports, free time to pursue personal interests...it doesn’t happen,” she explained. “The Chinese government is now realizing, however, the importance of character education, and is looking for tools to include in the curriculum. So, Laws of Life came along at an important time.”

As testament to its adaptability, the Laws of Life program operates quite differently in other parts of the world such as Arizona’s Mojave Valley. According to John Coolidge, the minister at Unity Church of the Mojave Valley who helped administer a contest there, many participating students came from families scarred by alcohol, drugs, child abuse and homelessness.

“It surprised me what these kids had been through and that they were so frank about their experiences,” he said. “Some of the grammar wasn’t the greatest, nor was the spelling, but they talked from the heart and developed a sense of themselves. That’s what we’re trying to encourage.”

In this benighted area, even festivities surrounding the prize-giving had an impact. “We had an awards dinner with tablecloths and candles, the whole ball of wax. This was a very big deal here and a unique experience for these kids,” Coolidge said. “People in the community were in favor of it, so were principals of the schools. Nobody knew the kids thought this deeply.”

Active involvement of school systems is vital, concurred Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles, California.

Through the institute’s “Character Counts!” initiative, Josephson is currently administering one of America’s largest essay contests under the name “Foundations for Life.” By securing the imprimatur of both the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the National Association of School Administrators, he hopes to reach a million U.S. school children in the next three years.

“We want it to be the basis of critical thinking, as well as improving reading and writing skills. This is terribly important today in America’s schools because not only does ‘No Child Left Behind’ emphasize these skills, but soon the SAT will involve a written portion, too,” he said.

Josephson has assembled a list of 200 maxims for the contest, ranging from the easy to comprehend - “If there’s a will, there’s a way” - to those that require more sophisticated reasoning - “Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.” Even if children don’t formally enter the contest, he believes, they’ll still be exposed to enduring truths - perhaps, for the first time - and may resonate with one or two.

“A maxim is wisdom encapsulated; it is a pill of smartness,” said Josephson. “And wisdom always moves people to their better selves.”

Rutgers’ Maurice Elias agrees. “Habits we come to cherish, are not necessarily those we arrive at intellectually, but are habits of the heart. These emerge from the communities in which we live,” he concluded. “The Laws of Life Contest works so well because it creates an ethical consciousness in the community that did not exist before.”

To learn more about the Laws of Life program, and to discover how you can launch a contest in your community, please visit the website: www.lawsoflife.org

Links of Interest
Laws of Life program

Stephen Henderson is a freelance writer based in New York and a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Baltimore Sun and Religion News Service.

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