As if having George Bush as a graduate student wasn’t enough to tarnish it’s reputation, Harvard is offering a psychology course in happiness. Readers will not be surprised to find that in the touchy feely world of dumbed down Americana the course is incredibly popular. With a total of 855 students it has the largest enrolment of any course offered by the University. That’s not all!
To the surprise of many traditionalists an English boarding school has also started lessons in happiness
Pupils at Wellington College are receiving one lesson a week in happiness. The headmaster, Anthony Seldon, is quoted as explaining " the most important job of any school is to turn out young men and women who are happy and secure”
Obviously Mr Seldon is a revolutionary figure in the British boarding school establishment where for hundreds of years the purpose of the school was to teach children how to cope with hardship by subjecting them to a system of graded suffering. From freezing dorms, 5 mile runs, fagging, beatings, and all manner of uncomfortable tasks, the purpose of education was not happiness, but endurance.
The content of the happiness course at Wellington has been conceived by psychologist Nick Baylis, and the lessons are taught by the school’s Religious Education staff. Dr Seldon has said that the lessons would complement rather than substitute religion.
And, before you start thinking that the children will be learning about inducing ecstatic religious trances, or how to get that holy pleasurable tingle that comes from the religiously practiced pursuit of shopping, - Think again. Likewise, do not think that the children will be encouraged into popping Prozac, getting high on booze heroin or ecstasy pills, or pigging out on their favorite junk foods. Dr Baylis believes children need to be taught that they can create happiness, rather than consume it.
The courses at Harvard and Wellington are surrounded by the usual over elaboration of the obvious that passes for wisdom in today’s ‘you can pay so you can stay’ in education system. Both courses emphasise that happiness has more to do with our mental state and outlook on life than external factors, such as wealth, career paths, social status, or success as defined in material terms. All of which is true up to a point - but you only need to lose your wealth, be thwarted in your career path, lose your social status and your material possessions to know that they do have a substantial effect on how happy you are. It is in gain and loss of such things that we experience happiness or sadness. - Not in possession. That is why in India we are traditionally taught the importance of detachment, which is not about not caring, it is about letting go of what we love, when what we love is lost.
Having courses in happiness may be popular in Harvard and Wellington College, but for those of us with functional families there is no need to attend. Our greatest happiness comes from our relationship with others. If children do not learn that from their parents, grandparents, relatives and friends, no amount of classroom teachings will make them happy. They’d be better off staying at home and watching Oprah.
