There’s An Evidenced-Based Solution

In leading a bandwagon on Positive Education, Martin Seligman is fond of asking audiences he speaks to the following question: What do you most want for your children? (And if you’re not parents, consider it hypothetically – what would you most want most for your children to have in life?). Happiness? Good health? Fulfillment? Love?

Seligman then juxtaposes it with the following question: What do schools teach? Discipline? Science? Responsibility?

But suppose we can have both? This is what he means by Positive Education. In addition to what we traditionally teach in schools, Positive Education involves the teaching of character and strength, virtue, self-awareness, self-efficacy (not self-esteem), resilience, flexible and accurate thinking, strategies for high quality connections, and optimism wed to reality.

With the advent of Positive Psychology, these constructs are now grounded in theory and science – with evidenced-based interventions to build these capacities and in turn, make life more worth living – more pleasurable, more engaging, and more meaningful.

It has been shown that happier people have better relationships, earn more money, and live longer than unhappier people. If we’re finding ways that make people happier, doesn’t it make sense we teach this in schools?

Portions of this originally published by Louis Alloro on Positive Psychology News Daily.