Teaching happiness

Teaching happiness

By Alastair Jamieson for the Telegraph

Wellington College, the boarding school that introduced lessons in wellbeing and positive psychology four years ago, is extending happiness classes to parents, too.

Weekend ‘taster sessions’, costing Ô£40 per person, are being offered at the school in school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, which costs Ô£9,000 a term.

The parent groups will cover topics such as “resilience”, “mindset”, “active-constructive responding” and “mindfulness” in the hour-long lessons, which are followed by discussion.

The school’s website says participating parents “will experience wellbeing classes almost exactly as their children would and will cover a selection of the topics that their children will be taught during the course of the three year wellbeing programme”.

The classes were introduced in 2006 by Dr Anthony Seldon, Master of the school.

“We all know what maths or history lessons are about, but no parent has any childhood experience of a timetabled lesson in wellbeing,” he said.

“There was a chorus of doubt and scepticism when we announced that children could be taught the skills of living happier lives, including the fundamental idea that acquiring ‘stuff’ does not make you happy, but helping others does.

“Four years on, many schools have introduced similar lessons, in the UK and other parts of the world, and the subject is becoming established as a vital addition to the academic side of school life.

“I think that teaching wellbeing has contributed significantly to the positive changes at our school, including an atmosphere of encouragement and a zero tolerance attitude to teachers treating children badly or unkindly.”

See the original and full article on teaching happiness HERE