Why should children attend school?
Many would answer, “To learn and avail themselves of education,” as though education is the ultimate end of schooling. With that reply, children are envisioned as adult workers, dedicating themselves to their jobs.
But no. Being employable or employed after schooling is just a phase and a means to a higher end.
Children avail themselves of education to increase their likelihood of finding the path to a flourishing life. It’s redundant to add, “and sustain the enjoyment of increasing pleasure from various experiences.”
When one is living a flourishing life, he/she is necessarily happy. Without happiness, one can’t be said to be living a flourishing life.
One can be a successful surgeon, but he/she can’t be living a flourishing life if he/she is battling chronic and profound fear, anxiety, depression, pain, bitterness, regrets, or sadness, which causes pervasive unhappiness. Being constantly miserable, despite one’s material affluence or professional success, is a potent spoiler of the pursuit of a flourishing life.
A flourishing career is narrow in scope, whereas a flourishing life is holistic, widely inclusive, and much broader. Michael Jackson’s flourishing career does not equate to a flourishing life.
Oddly, despite its value, the pursuit of a flourishing life is the most neglected subject matter in schools and universities. There is neither express interest in it nor sustained effort toward its attainment across all grade levels and formal programs.
All young learners must have experienced various forms of happiness. But being young, most of their happiness is often just a glimpse, a thin slice, if you may, of higher forms of bliss. Some forms of happiness are worldly, intellectual, and spiritual. Each of these could be experienced at various levels, depending on one’s education, formal or otherwise.
Again, why should children attend school? To obtain an education that will enable them to appreciate and enjoy the blessings of the generous Universe and increase the likelihood that they will find the highest happiness they can find in their lifetimes.
Specialized learning is important as it enables the learners to generate the money they need to buy the basic necessities of life. But it’s education, not technical training in narrow fields of activity, that frees the learners from a limited sense of human existence.
Education enhances the capacity of learners to find happiness beyond worldly pleasures. Education teaches the art of living, not only the competencies necessary to make a living. It capacitates the students to examine various aspects of dignified human existence outside the working citizen’s routine activities. Arts, humanities, philosophy of the human person, values education, history, travel, cultural education, leisurely activities, recreational breaks from work, and other spiritually or intellectually uplifting nourishments for the individual’s soul are as important — by no means to be sacrificed, in part or in whole, in favor of professionalization — as the citizens’ principled performance of their professional functions.
Without enabling the learners to enjoy life’s offerings outside the mind-narrowing confines of the world of work, they will have no sufficient fuel to ignite enthusiasm or excitement at the prospect of enjoying personal pursuits for which they were supposed to have been adequately equipped during their schooling.
So, has the system not overlooked that education, basic or not, must be provided for the serious pursuit of the individual’s happiness? Alarmingly, an increasing number of people, young and old, are claiming to be suffering from unhappiness, which has many faces — lack of enthusiasm, listlessness, anxiety, fear, depression, anguish, and other mental issues.
“I don’t feel appreciated for my efforts.” “I don’t feel loved.” “I feel exploited.” “I am not as intelligent as my sibling(s).” “I feel used.” “I feel unwanted.” “I feel alone.” “My job is unrewarding.” “I’m jaded.” “I’m scared of what’s coming my way.” “Life is boring.” “I don’t know how to derive pleasure from culture and arts.” “What’s there to enjoy in reading?” Some of these may have been heard straight from friends’ mouths, and others, on occasion, are overheard in different venues.
What can parents, teachers, and school administrators do to foster joy in the learning environments?
Make the learning environment a playground. This requires some effort, such as researching, collaborating, and sharing best practices. Two more years have been added to the 10-year basic education cycle, yet the curriculum remains crowded and highly demanding. Education and training for a certain vocation or profession should be paced, not rushed. Studies should be interspersed with much-needed intellectual sojourns so that the learners can fully digest the substance of learning. Consider the journeys of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Copernicus, Shakespeare, Bernini, Bach, Voltaire, Mozart, and Beethoven that we know today. Their developments were not an overnight success story. Their laid-back circumstances allowed them to step back and examine and learn well from their works and mistakes.
Take the students’ Health Education subject seriously. It’s challenging to stay happy if one suffers from chronic discomfort or pain. It’s true that Health Education is not concerned with physical well-being alone. However, young learners should place a premium on their physical health to keep debilitating afflictions and pain at bay. Their bodies are the temples that house their psyches. If those temples perish due to lack of proper care, then the psyches become disembodied souls. Remember, many wealthy but terminally ill people will willingly trade all their possessions for good health to enjoy a longer life replete with realizable possibilities and often unrecognized opportunities. It’s not excessive to say if one is alive and well, he/she is, in a certain sense, already rich.
Art Education is not an embellishment; it’s a path to transcendence. Experiential (e.g., visual or audio-visual) beauty is something, but it’s not everything. It’s actually common and hollow if it’s all a person has. It’s bound to deteriorate and expire over time. There’s this advice in philosophy that we ought to chase the truly beautiful. It’s unfortunate, however, that education, for many, is just a means to a practical or material end. Art Education should get the learners to see the value of asking, To what higher end could the pursuit of material value be aimed at? Learners should also learn to express their ideals or visions clearly so they can find the best means to realize them.
Teach pluralism or diversity. The idea contemplated here is religious, political, philosophical, and cultural multiplicity. One of the toxic things that add weight to many people’s misery is their difficulty in considering other ideas and actions with an open mind. When regularly imbibed, a reasonable amount of open-mindedness and tolerance will not only flourish into a virtue. It will also contribute to a feeling of having been liberated from ignorance after having weighed the merits of other people’s viewpoints. Think of the various forms of meanness on social media. Many of them spring from uninformed intolerance, lack of understanding, hatred, or close-mindedness. Another name for it is “bigotry,” and its close companion is hatred rather than happiness.
Train the learners to become the masters of their emotions. Emotions are not unimportant. However, while emotions must be factored in in various life issues, learners should become aware that, unlike the rational faculty, feelings cannot determine the acceptability levels of competing answers to problems that involve powerful emotions. The learners should become intelligent problem-solvers. A highly rational frame of mind increases the learners’ chances of finding ways to enjoy life regardless of economic, philosophical, psychological, political, and social circumstances.
In his work titled “The Functions of the Teacher,” Bertrand Russell wisely said: “It should be one of the functions of the teacher to open vistas before his pupils, showing them the possibility of activities that will be as delightful as they are useful….” That was the idealist and pragmatist in Russell, urging all those who must educate young learners to build educated humans, not just skilled workers.
