This telecollaborative project is an extension of the senior level English Social Issues unit. In this unit, students study the novel Brave New World and identify and analyze various social, ethical, and cultural issues presented in the book. The culminating activity has students creating a personal manifesto, a statement of personal beliefs about self selected social topics. This telecollaborative project expands upon that personal manifesto, asking students to state and defend their beliefs about important virtues in addition to the social issues.
The original Laws of Life telecollaborative project is found on iEARN, created by Natasha Cherednichenko, Alema Nasim, and Sarah Donald, based on the essay contest begun by John Templeton in 1997. To date, the project has been in production for more than ten years. Many publications exist involving the Laws of Life project, including the first volume of collected essays entitled Writing from the Heart: Young People Share Their Wisdom.