A Good Life

Worksheet Description

This cryptogram worksheet provides a thought-provoking activity for students, centered on the wisdom of Bill Watterson, the creator of the “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip. The exercise involves a quote from Watterson’s 1990 Kenyon College commencement speech, challenging students to decode a message that offers a definition of a “good life.”

Each letter in the quote has been replaced with a number, and it is up to the students to use the provided alphabet key to translate these numbers back into letters. The alphabet key, displayed at the top of the worksheet, assigns a unique numerical value to each letter, A through Z, which serves as the code for students to crack.

Upon completing the decryption task, the worksheet prompts students to engage with the content on a deeper level by asking them to reflect on their own definition of a “good life.” This reflective question is positioned below the cryptogram, providing space for students to write their responses. This aspect of the worksheet not only helps students practice their decoding and reasoning skills but also encourages them to introspect and articulate their personal philosophies. This combination of cryptological challenge and existential inquiry makes for a rich, educational experience.