EXPLORING VOCATION:

What is Meaningful Work?

Jill Donovan

John Burroughs School

St. Louis, MO

Final Sentence of the 5-Paragraph

JBS Statement of Philosophy

“Our approach to education,

reinforced by the ethical and

interpersonal ideals we foster,

enables our graduates to discover

lifetime fulfillment in

meaningful work and

commitment.” (emphasis added)

So . . .

What is “meaningful work”?

“The greatest good luck in life for

anybody, is to have something that

means everything to you . . . To do

what you want to do, and to find that

people will pay you for doing it . . .”

(Henry Moore)

Cultivating a unique gift?

“It is salvation if one can step forth

from the clutter of one’s mind into

that open space—that almost holy

space—called work.”

(Mary Oliver)

Pursuing an almost sacred focus?

True vocation is the place “where your

deep gladness meets the world's deep

need.”

(Frederick Buechner)

Serving others?

Finding “flow”?

“The work’s possibilities excited

them; the field’s complexities

fired their imaginations. The

caring suggested the tasks; the

tasks suggested the schedules.

They learned their fields and

then loved them.”

(Annie Dillard)

Helicopter View

of the Unit

We open with a full-period discussion of

the central question by examining some

positive and negative experiences that

we have each had while working.

• felt useful

• did not notice time passing

• enjoyed co-workers

• knew that the work mattered

• could chart own progress

• felt a sense of mastery

• had fun while doing it

• felt respected by boss/superiors

• learned new skills

• not enough to do

• work felt meaningless

• mistreated by boss/superiors

• micromanaged

• minutes passed with excruciating

slowness

• annoying or unkind

co-workers

• no sense of mastery or purpose

• work too difficult or too easy

Some Guiding Questions

1. What conditions make work meaningful?

2. Can all work be meaningful?

3. How can we figure out if our work is meaningful?

4. Is the definition of “meaningful work” situation and

person specific, or are there certain universals?

5. How does meaningful work connect to cultural

expectations and identity issues?

6. Is meaningful work always prestigious or highly valued?

7. Why is it important to pursue meaningful work?

Week of 10/31

Day 1: poems about work and “Selling Manure” (Campbell)

Day 2: Levine poems

Day 3: “From the Poets in the Kitchen” (Marshall)

Friday, Parent Conferences: No School

Week of 11/7

Day 1: “Quitting the Paint Factory” (Slouka)

Day 2: “I Stand Here Ironing” (Olsen)

Day 3: “Winter Work” (Snyder)

Day 4: In-Class Writing: thesis-driven analysis of any of the

short works—outlines required

Week of 11/14

Day 1: final project introduction; film clips about work

Day 2: Nickel and Dimed, 1-40

Day 3: Nickel and Dimed, 41-80

Day 4: final project proposals due; Nickel and Dimed, 81-120

Week of 11/21

Day 1: guest speaker

Day 2: guest speaker

Wednesday and Thursday and Friday: Happy Thanksgiving

Week of 11/28

Day 1: Nickel and Dimed, 121-160

Day 2: Nickel and Dimed, 161-200

Day 3: Nickel and Dimed, 201-235; more film clips about work

Day 4: project work

Week of 12/5

Day 1: project work

Day 2: project presentations

Day 3: project presentations

Day 4: Meaningful Work Projects Due; holiday activities

Poetry about Work

“Writing a Resume” (Symborska)

“Lying in a Hammock…” (Wright)

“Dolor” (Roethke), “Monday” (Collins)

“Hay for the Horses” (Snyder)

“A Death at the Office,” “They Had Torn Off My Face

at the Office,” “Myrtle” (Kooser)

“To Be of Use” (Piercy)

“You Can Have It,” “Coming Close” (Levine)

A Death at the Office

by Ted Kooser (b. 1939)

The news goes desk to desk

like a memo: Initial

and pass on. Each of us marks

Surprised or Sorry.

The management came early

and buried her nameplate

deep in her desk. They have boxed up

the Midol and Lip-Ice,

the snapshots from home,

wherever it was—nephews

and nieces, a strange, blurred cat

with fiery, flashbulb eyes

as if it grieved. But who grieves here?

We have her ballpoints back,

her bud vase. One of us tears

the scribbles from her calendar.

Myrtle

by Ted Kooser

Wearing her yellow rubber slicker,

Myrtle, our Journal carrier,

Has come early through rain and

darkness

To bring us the news.

A woman of thirty or so,

with three small children at home,

she’s told me she likes

a long walk by herself in the morning.

And with pride in her work,

she’s wrapped the news neatly in plastic—

a bread bag, beaded with rain,

that reads WONDER.

From my doorway I watch her

flicker from porch to porch as she goes,

a yellow candle flame

no wind or weather dare extinguish.

“It is Levine who has been

direct about one of

democracy’s most taboo

subjects: the fact that

members of one segment of

humanity are doomed to

soulless, unreflective,

unfulfilling work, while those

of another, infinitely smaller

segment are blessed with the

opportunity to live out their

destiny in their work.”

(Lee Siegel, New York Times

writer and social critic)

Coming Close

by Philip Levine

Take this quiet woman, she has been

standing before a polishing wheel

for over three hours, and she lacks

twenty minutes before she can take

a lunch break. Is she a woman?

Consider the arms as they press

the long brass tube against the buffer,

they are striated along the triceps,

the three heads of which clearly show.

Consider the fine dusting of dark down

above the upper lip, and the beads

of sweat that run from under the red

kerchief across the brow and are wiped

away with a blackening wrist band

in one odd motion a child might make

to say No! No! You must come closer

to find out, you must hang your tie

and jacket in one of the lockers

in favor of a black smock, you must

be prepared to spend shift after shift

hauling off the metal trays of stock,

bowing first, knees bent for a purchase,

then lifting with a gasp, the first word

of tenderness between the two of you,

then you must bring new trays of dull

unpolished tubes. You must feed her,

as they say in the language of the place.

Make no mistake, the place has a language,

and if by some luck the power were cut,

the wheel slowed to a stop so that you

suddenly saw it was not a solid object

but so many separate bristles forming

in motion a perfect circle, she would turn

to you and say, "Why?" Not the old why

of why must I spend five nights a week?

Just, "Why?" Even if by some magic

you knew, you wouldn't dare speak

for fear of her laughter, which now

you have anyway as she places the five

tapering fingers of her filthy hand

on the arm of your white shirt to mark

you for your own, now and forever.

“In the end, the woman rubs her dirty hand

against the onlooker’s clean white shirt. And

while this gesture could be seen as a cry for help,

in my opinion she is making a statement. She

wants to make a mark on the man that he cannot

ignore, to show him that she is real and not just a

cog in the machine, or a bristle on the wheel, as

Levine puts it. She wants to make him question

what he values, whether his shirt or his

cleanliness truly matters. And through the poem,

Levine asks us if we are similarly willing to come

close enough to be marked by those less

fortunate.”

from one student’s analytical response

to “Coming Close”

Essays about Work

“Quitting the Paint Factory” (Slouka)

“From the Poets in the Kitchen” (Marshall)

“Selling Manure” (Campbell)

Bonnie Jo Campbell’s “Selling Manure”

“Selling Manure”

Campbell does a great job of reminding us

that “any job is an important job, whether it

is selling manure or selling insurance . . .

And even the smelliest job has its rewards.”

In the space below and on the back of this

sheet, write several paragraphs about a job

or work that you have done (paid or unpaid),

that may have initially seemed awful, but in

retrospect came to have value.

sample in-class writing prompt

sample student topics

• maintaining the lawn

• cleaning the club tennis courts

• running the cash register at a Lebanese Deli

• taking care of the house all summer while my

parents worked

• chopping wood in the brutal cold

• bussing tables, hostessing

• helping my grandfather sort decades’ worth of

memorabilia

• taking care of a dozen 9-year-old boys at

camp

• serving frozen custard

• washing and staining a deck

Short Stories about Work

“Winter Work” (Snyder)

“Cathedral” (Carver)

“I Stand Here Ironing” (Olsen)

In-Class Writing: Meaningful Work

Write a personal response to one of the

short works we have read thus far; for

instance, you could write about your own

poets in the kitchen, or write your own

version of “the virtues of idleness,” or your

own essay about doing a job you felt

perfectly fit or horribly unfit to do.

another writing prompt:

memorable student topics/comments

on running the fryers versus selling lemonade at the

Forest Park soul music festival: “work with minimal

human interaction can feel like its own form of incarceration.”

on hanging out at the barbershop: “for me, the

barbershop is my kitchen, and the people who get their

haircuts there are the poets.”

on cutting the grass: “in a sea of lawns that are

carefully maintained by lawn service crews, my yard is an

island . . . The next time I sit on the throne of the riding

mower surveying my domain, I will feel a sense of

accomplishment and gratitude for my parents forcing me

to do this work.”

on memories from childhood with mom:

“When I was a little kid my mother was without a

doubt my best friend. My mom, who stopped

working when I was born, was a part of every

moment of every day for the majority of the first

seven years of my life. She woke me up, got me

dressed, made me breakfast, played with me, took

me to the park, played with me at the park, took me

home, fed me dinner, and then put me to bed. My

mom was my entire world.”

on the benefits of idleness: “Oftentimes my

happiest moments are when I am with my friends

doing, for lack of a better word, nothing. There is no

sense of urgency to go anywhere, or talk about

anything, and instead we just sit there, maybe both

looking at a frog together . . . these moments are the

ones I remember most fondly.”

Nickel and Dimed:

On (Not) Getting By

in America

by Barbara

Ehrenreich

(Picador, 2001)

raising consciousness, teaching empathy,

and engendering lively debate

sample student survey responses—

lessons learned from Nickel and Dimed:

“I have always felt lucky to have this education, but this unit

intensified that awareness and made me appreciate those that do the

work to make my life work.”

“I want to remember to treat others as people, with the compassion and

humanity they deserve.”

“I learned that the benefits we enjoy as privileged middle class

Americans is largely due to the working class people of America and

the world. And we really must not forget that they are fellow humans,

equal to us in every way except opportunity and financial status. They

are not invisible.”

“I gained more sympathy for those who are working paycheck to

paycheck.”

Movie Clips about Work

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Life as a House (2001)

In America (2002)

Walk the Line (2005)

Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

Chef (2015)

Guest Speakers

Harry Weber (St. Louis sculptor)

Rabbi Randy Fleisher (JBS parent and Rabbi at Central Reformed Congregation)

Mary Stillman(JBS parent and founder of the Hawthorn School)

Ruben Rosario-Rodriguez(JBS parent and SLU Theology Professor)

Semester-End Project

What is Meaningful Work?

Semester-End Project

Basic Assignment:

Design and complete a project that answers

the above question. This project is worth 150

points. I want to give you wide latitude in

designing and developing this project, but

general requirements are as follows . . .

Some ideas (these are only ideas…I am ready to be

amazed and delighted by your creativity…)

Interview a series of people (friends, acquaintances,

neighbors, etc.) about the work that they do each day—

generate a series of thoughtful questions and then either

film or record your interviews. Finally, write a summary or

create a documentary cataloguing these views and the

larger patterns that emerge.

Create a film that in some way answers the central

question—either from your perspective or the larger

culture’s perspective or both.

Write an essay about someone you know and admire that in

your view is doing meaningful work. (4 pages minimum—1st

person is acceptable)

thank you for listening!

Jill Donovan

John Burroughs School

jdonovan@jburroughs.org