Ecological + Existential Footprint

Although I am an educator, I am not a believer in quizzes, especially those that feature multiple-choice questions. Maybe it's because I endured a British education where, from between the age of eight and eighteen, I had to take a battery of exams that would determine my fate. Fortunately, I survived (and thrived, ironically) but the bad taste lingered. Today, as a consequence, most of my course assignments are related to writing. I try to give my students the opportunity to learn and make intellectual discoveries through the integrated experience of reflecting and threading ideas together with words and sentences.

However, I make one notable exception to this pedagogical principle. There is one quiz that I am keen for all my students to take. It is the Ecological Footprint Quiz (which you can access by clicking on the Earthday Link that is featured in the Favorites column of this blog). This quiz allows you to determine what kind of footprint your current style of life creates on the planet. After answering a series of questions related to what you eat, where you live, how you move around, and what you buy, you are then told how many Earths are required to support your lifestyle--if, indeed, everyone else lived just like you. Be warned, dear reader, that you might not enjoy reading your results. (I was told that there would need to be at least 7 Planet Earths if everyone lived like me). However, at least this is a quiz that you can learn from and then, of course, continually re-take until you achieve the result that you desire.

In addition to taking the Ecological Footprint Quiz, I think every student should take what I call "The Existential Footprint Quiz." Here, the purpose would be to discover what kind of impression you are making on the world through your daily choices and actions. The goal is to create as large a footprint as possible (in other words, the opposite to the Ecological Footprint). Here are the categories of questions that I would make the students answer:

POLITICAL CHOICES AND ACTIONS: What contributions do you make to local and national elections? Ballot initiatives? Local and global issues? To what extent do you participate in a network or organization that empowers the community (both where you live and beyond)?

CONSUMER CHOICES AND ACTIONS: To what extent do you buy local produce that has been grown/manufactured at a fair price, under fair labor conditions? How often do you shop at big-box retail stores? (Yes, we all do at some time or another). How often do you walk or ride your bike or take public transport rather than drive a car?

SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL CHOICES AND ACTIONS: To what extent are you connected to your local community and landscape spiritually? How familiar are you with local lore--the stories, the myths, the traditions, the geographical landmarks that shape your home environment? Do you speak other languages that can help connect you to more than just one culture and that give you an international outlook?

LIFE AND HAPPINESS CHOICES AND ACTIONS: To what extent do you contribute to someone else's happiness and quality of life by selfless giving (for example, by unconditional love, by material donations, by inspiration, or by dutiful respect)?

That is a start at least. I'm sure the list of questions will grow longer, the more I develop the quiz. Whether or not I ever actually give the quiz to my students is another question. Come to think of it, I might need a few tech-savvy students to help me post the quiz on an attractive Website similar to Earthday's. Check it out!