Humans possess a will to meaning (Heine & Proulx, 2006; Peterson, 1999; Frankl, 1946). Yet the deeply personal nature of meaning-making has made it an elusive topic for educators to effectively address in their classrooms. In spite of these challenges, education mandates in British Columbia (2023) and elsewhere have stated that one of the goals of education is “human and social development,” which together involve developing a “sense of self-worth and personal initiative” in students. Personal initiative requires a sense of clarity around one's values and the actions required to realize them (i.e., meaning). The following paper wishes to explore what fulfilling such a mandate might look like and offers a series of pedagogical recommendations to this end. Among these prescriptions, the paper highlights the possibility of leveraging the power of the Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CPI), to 1) assist in making thinking visible, 2) clarify conceptual confusions and assist in value refinement, and 3) enhance a higher sense of self and emotional resilience in students.  
 

     CPI's can provide students with a conceptual space in which their existing values can be both challenged as well critically applied to both real and hypothetical scenarios. This offers participants the novel opportunity to both refine their values as well as revise them in light of unconsidered viewpoints. CPI's also help model the inextricable relationship between meaning-making and practical reasoning by visibly demonstrating the power of reason to help guide and determine action. Finally, CPI's can assist youth in parsing and distinguishing their own values from those of surrounding culture and groups they belong to, lending dimensionality to participants' sense of self. All of these processes will help students by preparing them for the interpersonal marathon, not solitary sprint, that characterizes meaning-making.