Integrated Studies Project submitted to Dr. K. Banks in ...dtpr.lib.athabascau.ca/action/download.php.../PennyPooleProject.pdf · Ehrenreich (2009) writes Americans have been Bright-sided

HAPPINESS,i COMMUNITY AND PEDAGOGY

By

PENNY POOLE

IntegratedStudiesProject

submittedtoDr.K.Banksinpartialfulfilmentoftherequirementsforthedegreeof

MasterofArts–IntegratedStudies

Athabasca,Alberta

06‐12‐2010

Poole Exploring Happiness as Pedagogy

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Abstract

The aim of this project is to further understand the relationship between the culture of

happiness and pedagogy through examining current literature, terminology, and discussion.

Although the study of happiness appears simple enough, in fiscal and outcome based

environments it has only been instituted as a meaningful inquiry over the past thirty years. Of the

growing numbers of surveys and qualitative interviews completed by individuals reporting

various levels of happiness, only a modest few have been analysed to understand the intrinsic

value of cultivating and encouraging happiness within pedagogy.

Aspects of happiness from genetics, economics, psychology and social welfare, where

despair, fear and violence transpire are explored. To exemplify, current mental health studies

(2006) reveal that loneliness is becoming an insidious trend with dire results (Cacciopo et al.,

2009; Fowler, 2008). According to the Canadian Mental Health Commission, greater than ten per

cent will experience a major depression during their life course (three point five million males:

five million females). Depression levels rise to such dangerous levels during the preschool

months of July/August that youths commit their lives to suicide. “A number of studies indicate

that an especially high-risk time for vulnerable teens is when they go back to school. The rates

are so high among aboriginal youth at this time of year that the Journal of Addiction and Mental

Health state autumn is referred to as the 'suicide season” (2001).

This paper explores the nature of happiness, and discusses how happiness is of central

importance in pedagogy.

Key Words: Happiness, subjective wellbeing, behavioural economics, positive psychology,

pedagogy, values, education, hope, and flow.


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As to the pursuit of happiness,

"education makes us happy in a milieu which normally would have made us unhappy, if we had

not been worked on, molded, and formed for just that milieu"

Jacques Ellul, 1964.

Dedicated to Mia, Dave and Paul who keep me going,

and my family, friends and colleagues who kept me sane, tolerating me through it all…

Let it be worthwhile… let it happen… let it begin…

Dr. Banks,

Thank you ever so much for

being such a wise advisor.


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Preamble

Health, social welfare, and positive psychology disciplines increasingly offer specific

practices to aid in the pursuit of happiness as a respite to counterbalance the increasing work-life

stressors experienced in western society. Nationally, American and UK findings indicate that the

value in cultivating socially inclusive lifestyles and friendships act as prophylactics to misery

(Oswald, Wu, 2009; University of Warwick, 2009). By freeing up time, providing opportunities

to self-determination, and increasing personal decision-making, cultures of happiness begin to

flourish (Inglehart et al., 2008; Punset, 2007; Nettle, 2005). In fact, one hundred thirty countries

gathered at the 2007 Organization of Economic Cooperation and Developments (OECD) World

Forum on Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies. They are among a growing body of

institutions interested in understanding how happiness contributes to life satisfaction, viewing

this pursuit as an emergent grass roots movement.

In graphing happiness, a line (zoom on Fig 1) plunges from the higher happiness reports

of wellbeing stemming from the lower class (16,000 USD), charting to near zero experiences of

despair and helplessness found from those in endemic poverty (Angeles, 2009; Edin, 1997).

Figure 1 Subjective Wellbeing & Real GDP (Gallup Poll, 2006) Income & Despair (available from The Creative Commons)

Yet, increased incomes levels do not necessarily erase the accompanying stressors of American

affluence (see Fig. 2) (Noveck, & Thompson, 2007). Life satisfaction plateaus at around 60,000

USD or 16,000 in developing countries; this profoundly useful finding is being applied to UK

policy-making (Benson, 2006; Gallup World Poll, 2006).


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Figure 2 Life Satisfaction and Real GDP (Gallup Poll, 2006) Happiness FlatLinesat60,000USD(available from The Creative Commons)

Blair (2002) outlined implications of the UK’s development of a policy on happiness in a

paper outlining how people’s happiness could affect policies through teaching the subject of

happiness, developing a happiness index, and creating a more balanced life-work scenario.

The PM’s Strategy Unit held a "life satisfaction" seminar… discussing the implications of a

"happiness" policy…. Downing Street published an "analytical paper" which considered how

happiness might affect different policies including: a happiness index, teaching people about

happiness, support for volunteering, a more leisured work-life balance, and higher taxes for

the rich. The authors were careful to say that the ideas were not government policy. Blair's

policy adviser… Halpern [states] it is inevitable that in [the] future governments will be

judged on their success in making people happy. (Easton, 2006)

Political science findings indicate a correlation between democracy and nascent social

movements promoting cultures of happiness. Scandinavian countries report the highest levels of

life satisfaction, while Latin American societies moving towards free choice report a happier

citizenry. This inquiry establishes there is a culture of happiness, and enables the discussion—

should happiness be of central importance in formal & informal (community) pedagogy?

Introduction

Establishing Happiness: Culture and Pedagogy

The primary intent behind this research proposal—to gather current literature and research

where happiness was embedded in curriculum—was eclipsed by the greater demand to first

clarify and position happiness itself. This paper’s methodology uses a qualitative approach

informing readers by way of a thorough and comprehensive literature review from which to

examine the utility of happiness. Themes exploring the historical development, significant


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contributors, theoretical approaches, controversies, challenges and rational behind establishing

virtue-centered education are presented in the analytical section. The paper summates by

articulating findings, constructing recommendations and caveats, making the paper a useful tool

for establishing the utility, rational, and inter-connectivity of happiness. The challenge as to

whether happiness research is rigorous, reliable, or overly subjective— I.e. can happiness be

validated as a serious subject—is addressed. Educators, CD workers, and students intent on

making a case to centre future cultural interactions and pedagogy on happiness will find this a

comprehensive document exploring key researchers in political, historical, economic, and cultural

context.

Dozens of countries are contributing to wellbeing inquiry, linking to both economic and

ecological sustainability as it affects national health (Stiglitz, 2009-09-19). Canada’s equivalent

to a national commission on the wellbeing of families, the Vanier Institute of the Family provides

answers affirming Canadian policies benefit by implementing happiness:

In 2001, when the Vanier Institute of the Family commissioned a study by Libbie Driscoll, it

revealed widespread support among Canadian professionals for learning more about emotional

development. Educators, family professionals, parenting experts, community leaders, and

policy makers said they consider social and emotional development to be an important priority

for children and youth. Indeed, many identified it as the most significant aspect of their work

and the most significant challenge yet to be addressed in Canada. (McCloskey, 2005)

According to the recent Albertan commissioned Bonnyville Conversations, research to

look beyond outcome-based models of education is necessary (2009). There is a need to help

“each child [find] their talents and expand on them so that they will have passion and enthusiasm

for further learning” (p.91). This report questions the current model on which education is built

and its relevancy and capacity to meet future needs.

[i]f in fact our education system was based on a factory, then no wonder we have problems. It

was devastating to think that it was the factory model that determined the schooling model and

how devastating it was to realize that we continued to follow the model. Success can’t be

measured by how well you did in school…. We need to change how and what we measure as

success. (Bonnyville, 2009, p.85)

However, this conversation is not peculiar to Alberta, Ontario’s OISE also supports

education that enhances socialization, and character building fostering “a climate of respect for


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self and others, and improved interpersonal relationships, to a positive school culture” (Gaze et

al., 2010). Additionally, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and BC are developing curricula in

accordance with the UN where they advocate for child rights movements leading toward cultures

of peace (1989-2010). Outreach organization, Living Values Education (LVE), is UNICEF’s

global response to design activities around critical social values (cooperation, freedom,

happiness, honesty, peace, and simplicity) (UNICEF, 2010). LVE practices have been

encouraged in sixty countries on every continent including Atlantic Canada, and are recently

progressing in peaceful society. Developing positive school approaches is promoted for children

experiencing war, poverty, disaster, and even affluent, suburban youth (Varley, Vitiello, Zuvekas,

& Norquist, 2006) the desire for positive educational models is evident internationally across all

classes, genders, and economic groups (Living Values, 2010)ii.

This collection of literature draws from behavioural economics (Ariely & Michael, 2009;

Frey, 2008; Sen, 1999), positive psychology (Diener, 2000; Kahneman, Diener & Schwartz,

2000, Gilbert, 2005), political science (Inglehart, 1990; Inglehart, Foa, Peterson, & Weizel,

2008), and philosophy (utilitarian and pragmatism: Mill, 1909; Dewey, 1897; Popkewitz, 2005).

The intent of this research is to further understand how these interdisciplinary fields may inform

and contribute to educational praxis where happiness is not seen as a product of education, but as

a central approach embedded in pedagogy reciprocally informed by a value imbued culture.

Pedagogy and Happiness

Defining and Measuring Happiness

Definitions of happiness are elusive at best, and dependant on the discipline from which it

is regarded. For example, John Stuart Mill philosophically introduces the paradoxical nature of

happiness here: “ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so” (1863, 1957, p.

407). And according to psychologists Brickman and Campbell, even when a person’s material

state improves, over time their reported level of happiness returns back to the same level. This

suggests happiness has an experiential limit termed a psychological set point (1971). To sum: If

happiness is habituated and static, then people are incapable of experiencing and benefiting from

increases in their accomplishments or possessions since their expectations rise accordingly. As

people adapt to new levels over time, their set point returns to their original level of happiness. In

this case scenario, there is no utility in synthesizing happiness—however recent studies state this

is not necessarily true. How does one describe happiness and its pursuit?


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If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony,

educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the

Gobi desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled

under the dressing table. He will not be striving for it as a goal in itself, nor will he be seeking

it among the nebulous wastes of metaphysics. (Wolfe, 1931)

Perspectives on happiness are confusing indicating that happiness is a difficult subject to

understand or measure much less to successfully follow (Meyers &Diener, 1996). Happiness

seekers are stereotyped to be superficial and hedonic pleasure seeking tourists, wishfully

visualizing money, optimistically repressing negativity, and fearful of failure. Biologist Barbara

Ehrenreich (2009) writes Americans have been Bright-sided by forced cheerfulness and false

optimism. Ehrenreich speaks to the dark side of psychology discovered when she contracted

breast cancer. As a cancer patient she found herself immersed into a cultured infantilization and

materialism rather than a realistic search for knowledge. Maddened and astonished by this she

listened to stories where patients were encouraged to face the fact that they each had not been

happy enough or they would not have contracted the disease. The gender bias implies that when

women are ill it is their own fault, yet “certainly men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not

receive gifts of Matchbox cars” (Ehrenreich, 2009; Stevenson & Wolfers, 2009). She speaks to

the commoditisation and potential appropriation of happiness by power, The Media, and

economic pursuits misusing happiness as a utility from which to foster personal gain. Reality also

has utility, and as Ehrenreich claims, it is too dangerous to lose sight of unpleasant realities as

they offer meaningful feedback loops—throughputs—that lead to self-correction.

Happiness has only been recently established as a ‘serious science’ (Diener, 1984).

Currently the cache of happiness as a commodity or capital with material value is being

evaluated. When Nobel economists (Sen, 1998; Kahneman, 2002; Yunus, 2005) correlated

cultural, social, and economic capital, it inspired economists to popularize the concepts with titles

such as Layard’s The Science of Happiness (2006), thereby launching the epistemology of

happiness in earnest. Forerunners noted the exponential increase of this subject "[d]uring the

1980s, [when] the number of Psychological Abstract citations of well-being, happiness, and life

satisfaction quintupled to 780 articles annually" (Myers & Diener, 1996).

Yet happiness is still a vague and developing concept, as reported by Ed Dienerworking

with happiness since 1984. Early research by Martin Seligmancombined two different measures


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regarding how people report happiness. The reports on either a) positive or b) negative affect

were combined under the singular term Subjective Well-Being (SWB). The index is not a perfect

metric, however, it is considered a valid indicator of mental wellbeing that reveals the

relationship between reported suicidal feelings and resultant suicides (Shaffer, Gould, & Hicks,

2007). The correlation between indigenous depression and school results in what is termed—the

suicide season—these deaths could be reduced using SWB indicators. Understanding the

dynamics behind adult SWB and life long learners who face physiological and psychological

illness is also beneficial. In late 2009, Nobel laureates linked hyper-stressed individuals with

depressions that lead to premature physical degeneration and cellular aging; meditation, as

strange as this may seem, was seen to reduce these stressors (Blackburn, 2009; Ricard, 2005).

Operationalizing Happiness

Numerous methods of operationalizing happiness are increasingly explored by social

scientists measuring SWB. From positive psychology, Diener and Seligman alone record and

analyze hundreds of thousands of self-reported surveys in the general public through diaries, and

within academia itself (Positive Psychology Center (Seligman, PSU). Kahneman is critical of

Seligman process, challenging the validity of SWB results. He questions how the existing lag

between the event itself and the participant’s recording of SWB proving there are discrepancies

in people’s memory that occur after an elapsed period of time. Kahneman compares SWB with a

preferred method of reporting—daily-reconstructed reports of SWB revealing that perception of

happiness vary over time:

To that end they have developed the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), which uses

imaginative reconstruction and quantitative evaluation to provide a concise summary of daily

activities and their subjective valences. Because it is relatively easy to use — it costs little and

takes about 45 minutes to administer — Kahneman and his colleagues have argued that the

DRM could be widely administered and used to calculate "National Well-Being Accounts."

Such accounts would complement more traditional measures of health and wealth such as the

Gross Domestic Product. (Benson, 2006)

Research taken from DRM is currently viewed as to how it might influence American

policy-making. Typically, perceived high levels of happiness and SWB, are daily-recorded using

social media’s Twitter, mobile phones, and Skype. Using story recollections, they record SWB

information such as: 1) specific positive events; 2) experience (simple recollections of individual


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or shared joy, to transformation/liberation from poverty/exploitation); 3) leadership or skill

mastery and contribution; 4) expression of qualities (gratitude, kindness, subject matter, theory)

and 5) empowerment (increased personal or collective knowledge) and ecological sustainability.

Types of Value Indices

Indices from cross disciplines have differing foci and strengths, and their unique

measurements could bring new perspectives on assessing values such as happiness (Diener, 2000.

International comparisons using negative affects (suicide rates) such as the World Health

Organization (WHO) bring forward specific criteria, in this case: gender, country, year, and age.

Country comparisons show, for example, that suicide in Russia and Belarus are high for males,

while females in Asian countries China, Japan, and Korea are more at risk. These findings

indicate the importance of compiling cross disciplinary needs analysis (gender, human rights) in

order to understand cultural conditions that foster life/death.

Other indices including the World Values Survey (WVS), Human Development Index

(HDI), inequity distribution (GINI), public opinion (Gallup Survey), Framingham Heart Study,

Gross National Happiness (GNH), and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) note analysis variances.

Peace and happiness are correlated in the WVS, as are social tolerance, prosperity, economic

growth, democratic and rights legislation. Factors like the freedom of speech, personal and

political freedoms, opportunity, and gender equality are more completely understood within a

context rather than as singular measures—data analysis is recently accessible (White, 2006).

White’s First Map on World Happiness (SWB) integrates cross-cultural analysis from the

CIA, UNESCO & UNHDR, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Veenhoven

Database, the Latinbarometer & Afrobarometer creating a global perspective of subjective


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wellbeing (available from The Creative Commons). A grand work based on findings from 100

different international studies, it inquires into the lives of 80,000. White finds that 1) health, 2)

wealth and 3) access to education are central to achieving happiness (White, 2006).

Over the past two decades, national trends depict rising happiness in Nigeria and South

Africa (note the correlated rising GDP). Along with Puerto Rico and Mexico, they are transiting

towards increased democratic practice increasing citizenry freedoms and SWB. Shifts in rising

happiness links to rising incomes that cut across cultural zones (Inglehart & Welzel, 2007).

Materialism and unrealistic expectations of happiness are growing; a factor that Layard (2005)

suggests reduces happiness. More than a social construct, happiness is embedded into every

society, yet subjected to cultural interpretations and historicization and demands longitudinal

analysis (Wolf Shenk, 2009). In Eastern societies it has a collectivist centre in contras to

individualistic societies. Temporal moments of joy may be all one can aspire for in

subsistence/agriculturally-based societies as private time is low and community demands high.

The following table juxtaposes the values analyses of Inglehart, Sen, and Gini charting: 1)

suicide rates (The WHO), 2) World Values Survey (WVS), 3) quality of life (The Human

Development Index, HDI), 3) inequity (the GINI Index) and 4) economic development (the

GDP). Peace and happiness are correlated, as well as social tolerance, prosperity/economic

growth,democratic rule, and rights legislation (WHO) summating personal and political

freedoms, freedom of speech/opportunity, and gender equality.


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Suicide Rate/ 100,000

WVS HDI GINI GDP

Countries

WHO, 2007# Note the inverse correlation between suicide rates and happiness indicators. Future analysis could regard whether: 1) Lowering a country’s suicide may initiate social policies to support well-being (I.e. egalitarianism, pronatalism, social welfare). 2) Cultural and geographic influences plotted as well. #

Inglehart2008 UN, 2009# The Human Development Index (HDI) inspired by Sen (1990) compares life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living worldwide. Due to these measures, it regards wellbeing, child welfare and gender issues. HDI measures developing, developed and under-developed countries. #

UN, 2009# The GINI index measures inequity in a country where theoretically ‘0’ is total equity and ‘1’ total inequity.

UN, 2009

Soviet Union

Top 7 nations in Soviet Bloc 24.5- 38.6 Japan follows: 24.4

Ranked Bottom 25% equivalent to African norms

71 .399 (2002) 8

Finland 20.1 25 12 .295 34Switzerland

17.6 7 9 .337 21

Denmark 13.7 1 16 .247 28

Sweden 13.3 13 7 .25 22

Norway 11.6 19 1 .258 24Canada 11.6 10 4 .326 11US 11.1 16 13 .466 1Spain 7.6 43 15 .347 9Italy 7.1 45 18 .36 7New York State

6.0—the 50th least suicidal but for D.C.

51st or least ‘happiest’ state!

.499 highest but for DC

Bhutan 4.9 Increasing as materialism enters

63 132 .32 163

Bottom 28 African Nations

High, affected by HIV Ranked Bottom 25%

98: Tunisia HDI ranked highest. Most ranked at the bottom

.30 GINI ranks Ethiopia lowest Average ranked @ .578

South Africa’s GDP standing is highest 32 amid DenmarkFinland


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Until recently, happiness was believed to briefly fluctuate around set points, but current

“data from representative national surveys carried out from 1981 to 2007 show that happiness

rose in 45 of the 52 countries” (Inglehart et al., 1981-2007). Regression analyses points that

improved governance, autonomy, rights, and personal freedoms, resulted in rising happiness

(ibid). This counters the previous Hedonic Treadmill theory hypothesizing that happiness is

habituated and cannot be increased; conditions do exist where SWB is improving and lasting.

However,

A person who has had a life of misfortune, with very little opportunities, and rather little hope,

may be more easily reconciled to deprivations than others reared in more fortunate and

affluent circumstances. The metric of happiness may, therefore, distort the extent of

deprivation in a specific and biased way. (Sen, 1988, p.45)

It appears the most effective way to maximize happiness seems to change with rising

levels of economic development. For subsisting societies, “happiness is closely linked with in-

group solidarity, religiosity, and national pride” which are also determinants of life satisfaction.

Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World (2007) integrates nations into four borderless

dimensions, charting the significance and relationships of investing in: security & freedom,

tolerance & innovation. Their data reveals healthy connections between popular values and

beliefs with the presence or absence of democratic institutions (see Africa & Latin America).

Perhaps the Iraqis and Zimbabweans are among the world’s unhappiest people because they

have unique cultural understandings of what happiness means. But it seems likelier that they

are unhappy because life in their countries has become nasty, brutish, and short. Societies in

which people report high levels of happiness and life satisfaction have less corrupt

governments and higher levels of gender equality and are likelier to be democracies than other

societies. (Inglehart & Welzel, 20071)

1Individuals dictated by their economic conditions to simply survive are less able to creatively express themselves, and less able to imagine rational-objective ways of seeing the world. In these kinds of communities they are constrained to behave in specific patterns (Ex. Morocco/Zimbabwe). Contrast this to Latin American countries where the arts, and community involvements are encouraged—they report higher self-expression (a key component leading to democracy and ecological concern) on the WVS than Eastern European block. For example, Ecuador is the first country in the world to constitutionally protect the environment (2008-09-29). Puerto Rico & Finland stand at approximate the same level on the WVS, & Puerto Rico is more expressive (compare with France, Spain, Italy & Belgium). Cultural interpretations around life expectancy, school enrolment, and access to fresh water are standard social indicators useful to measure happiness. China is a noteworthy exception—people have long lives despite only 70% have


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On the above Inglehart Values Map (available from The Creative Commons) note the

blue grouping of Latin America and its relationship to self-expression. To exemplify proximal

values, horizontally position Puerto Rico noting it is in line with Ireland, Luxembourg, and

Finland. Except for El Salvador, Puerto Rico is the most traditional country. This visual

highlights meaningful correlations of values in different cultures. Countries are clustered in a

remarkably predictable way indicating the central nature of values and qualities in determining

community life, survival, and poverty.

The Gross National Happiness index (GNH) may well prove to be a levelling approach to

measuring a nation’s capital. The GNH index differs from traditional measurements used to

cross-compare nation’s wealth (GDP) in that it also measures: psychological well-being, time

secondary education, & 90% access to fresh water (Frey & Stutzer, 2002, p.42).


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use, community vitality, culture, health, education, environmental diversity, living standards, and

governance. One GNH example reveals the effects of happiness on health where happier people

live up to 7 years longer than people who are depressed:

The great divide between the happy and the unhappy in America is largely due to differences

in social and cultural values. The values that bring happiness are faith, charity, hard work,

optimism, and individual liberty. Secularism, excessive reliance on the state to solve problems,

and an addiction to security all promote unhappiness” (Brooks, 2008).iii

In the foundations of, GNH: Why Happiness Matters, Arthur Brooks underscores the

historical significance economics once had in fostering a moral quality of life. He distinguishes

morality (the well lived life) from happiness, and suggests economics should be used to value and

aid people to reach their potential. Aristotle uses the term Eudaimonia claiming that happiness is

a virtuous ‘activity of the soul expressing virtue’. Brooks contrasts Eudaimonia with Virtue

challenging: “that although one may be living a virtuous life, it may yet be rife with depression or

unhappiness” (2008, p. 5).

Although a life may be initially deemed unhappy—by reducing suicide rates, augmenting

access to education, health and supportive community—longevity is increased along with endless

possibilities to create peaceful ways of engaging with self/others. These ideas can be cultivated

informally in work efforts to pay people for doing what they love while developing personal

skills. The term, the Enterprise Impact (EI), represents a study that reveals how happier people

work more frequently in creative economies. Sectors that support autonomy, confidence and

competence result in manifesting engagement with novelty and innovation. Nations supporting

EI, have citizens who generate generosity and altruism. These people display pro-social

behaviour and experience less workplace stress, according to economist John Helliwell, (2009).

The Framingham Heart Study’s comparative analysis underscores many varying factors

contributing to health such as coronary disease and workplace stress. These qualitative findings

show a correlation between high suicide rates, and lack of close friendships for students

(Cacciopo, Fowler, & Christakis, 2009). Isolation, they purport, is as high a risk factor in early

death as suicide. In their paper, The Three Degrees of Influence, they state “as happy people

cluster together, a flourishing community is formed. And flourishing could grow to a larger

loop of people at the community level, where individual well-being or happiness would be able to

be achieved and maximized” (2008).


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For example, a recent study on loneliness (Cacciopo, Fowler, & Christakis, 2009) affirms

that community, and trust, act as contributors in the creation of happiness. Cacciopo states that

physiologically, “loneliness can increase vascular resistance (slows blood flow throughout the

body) contributes to diabetes, high blood pressure, a rise in cortical (stress) hormones, altered

gene transcription (a decrease sensitivity to physiological symptoms), obesity, and compromises

the immune system” (Cacciopo et al, 2009). Further to this, the state of loneliness can reify

isolation and contribute to living alone—yet, people who live alone do not necessarily feel lonely

if they have a safe social surround. Cacciopo cites colleagues Fowler and Christakis (2002) who

found “happiness to be more likely than unhappiness to spread through social networks.”

For the intent and purpose of this paper, happiness is defined as a process leading toward

wellbeing and health, expressed as a positive, life-affirming association of engagement. Key

contributors suggesting there are cultures that are predisposed to happiness are highlighted in this

literature search. It remains to be seen whether this can be cultivated in pedagogy.

Centralizing Happiness into Pedagogy

Political will and agency

Dewey emphasized that agency and consciousness are actively connected to the types of

actions that define democratic rule. He emphasized the importance of personal life as an

influence on governance advocating for grass roots responsibility. Believing that the morality of

democracy can only be realized by refraining from “thinking of democracy as something

institutional and external” he advised citizens to take up action (Dewey, 1897 as cited by

Popkewitz, 2005, p.187). He acknowledged that individuals contributing to their communities act

by keeping the values alive as they engage in processes of continual change.

The new system of reason was a philosophy that “could examine how change served specific

purposes, how individual intelligences shaped things, how scientific administration might

beget increments of justice and happiness. (Popkewitz, 2005, p.38).

In similar fashion, Freire conceived of pedagogy of the oppressed as a way of naming the

loss of self-actualization and the bitterness of Brazilian class inequity (also found throughout

Latin America). Thirty years ago, Freire permitted a first insight into what critical pedagogy

focusing on liberation theology would look like—and his work significantly informs the intent of

this paper. Freire believed the purpose of education is to first cultivate a critical consciousness or

conscientization, a practice in which one achieves deeper awareness of the underpinnings and


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contradictions of the social and political worlds (Freire, 1970, p.19). Critical consciousness also

includes taking action against the oppressive elements in one's life that are illuminated by that

understanding as a method of enlightenment to improve the human condition (hooks, 2003).

During the sixties, oppression was endemic, peasants were blinded to the sociology of this

oppression, and resigned to their lot in life, in part due to voting legislation, gender gaps,

religious authoritarianism, but ultimately due to their lack of literacy, and rights knowledge.

Freire contributed to what he considered the “ontological vocation of the human race:

humanization” (Torres, 2005, p.252). Freire stated: ‘In these pages I hope I have made clear my

trust in the people, my faith in men and women, and my faith in the creation of a world in which

it will be easier to love’ (Freire, 1972, p. 19).

Giroux carries Freire’s thinking through the interconnections between history, culture, the

environment, and economies of a people—to a place where hope is sustained. Freire and Girouxiv

indicate that although establishing hope in poverty might be an experiment, that “[h]ope

demanded an anchoring in transformative practices, and one of the tasks of the progressive

educator was to "unveil opportunities for hope, no matter what the obstacles may be” (Freire,

1994, p. 9). Giroux, further developed this critical pedagogy, using the provocative quality of

hope where “even the poorest may well experience hope in situations where institutions and

authoritarian regime have not stripped away the centring relationships of family, friends, and

celebration. That for those who are under oppressive power structures, that there are always

opportunities to find hope (2010). Hope is integral to developing a culture of peace.

Interestingly enough, and on a darker note, it is Martin Seligman’s recent lectures that

have garnished criticism as to how positive psychology could be linked to a culture of harm.

Seligman has been linked with the US torture program. According to Jane Mayer, Seligman’s

learned helplessness theories were taught to Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE)

psychologists. Seligman’s techniques were reverse-engineered as Enhanced Interrogation

Techniques, and used by the CIA to torture prisoners internationally (Seligman admits lecturing

at SERE, but denies any role in torture).

By supporting the role of military psychologists in interrogations, even after evidence of

torture by the U.S. government was manifest, is perhaps unequalled in the annals of

professional societies, as providing political, and possibly organizational and theoretical or

practical support to unethical procedures, especially torture. (Mayer, 2007)


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Early psychological study initially looked at personality through lenses of pathological

conditions aiming use negative indicators as a perspective. During the sixties and seventies

psychology still focused on illness—western medical models were concerned with pathology and

less concerned with preventative measures. Foucault’s work is directly related to liberation. His

work resulted in a perspective where a genealogy of knowledge opened new avenues from which

to see medical models as found in both, The Birth of the Clinic (1963 translated into English

1986) and, Discipline and Punishment (1977). He uses Bentham’s version of Utilitarianism as a

provocation from which to see the varying virtual control mechanisms people are confined. He

coined power-knowledge to describe modern societal systems of supervision and subsequent

behavioural rewards.

It was Seligman in 1967 who coined the term, learned-helplessness, a psychological view

where clinical depression is an effect from the (perceived) absence of control over one’s

outcome-- it is one of many avoidance coping methods. Pessimistic patterns contribute to

depression in that people who do not feel their situation can improve are more likely to become

depressed than those who interpret differently or seek to control outcomes differently. Medically

this contributes to poor immune systems from fevers to cold contractions and heart attacks and

cancers. From a student’s perspective, learned helplessness contributes to classroom failure, low

motivation, and reliance on extrinsic factors such as marks or reduced negative attention.

Recent research indicates that people have a happiness set point, and a genetic

predisposition to happiness in the same fashion a child may have a predisposition to colic.

Understanding how improvements to experiencing happiness can be realized is now part of

mainstream psychology, behavioural economics, spiritual practices, physiology, and behavioural

genetics. Stress levels, for example, are reducible by using specific meditation practices, and

digitally measured using 128 MRI electroencephalogram sites (Blackburn, Greider, & Szostak,

2009; Ricard, 2006).

Seligman describes how realizing authentic happiness (2005) is understood in balancing

three approaches to life. The first approach moves toward creating the pleasant life as a life

where one pursues positive emotions about the present, past, and future (Sternberg, 2000). The

next approach leads to the good or engaged life, a way of using personal strengths to doing

activities in the main realms of your life. The third approach Seligman describes is working on

creating a meaningful life with purpose. One’s personal strengths (signature strengths and virtues)


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are used in the service of creating something much larger than simply a person (Peterson, 2004).

Seligman stresses the importance of recent research indicating that, "the most

satisfied people are those who orient their pursuits toward all three, with the greatest weight

carried by engagement and meaning" (Peterson, 2004). As director of Pennsylvania’s Positive

Psychology Centre, author of Authentic Happiness, and the creator of the Positive Affectivity and

Negative Affectivity Scale self-rated test, PANAS. Seligman is a key investigator into the nature

and measure of happiness. Although his work is criticised to be simplistic in approach—he has

popularized research into happiness and SWB to such a state that two hundred American and

twenty-two UK university colleges offer positive psychology courses. Most relevant to this paper

however, is that Seligman et al, has trained an entire school faculty and support staff on personal

strength development, and gratitude reflections in a holistic school approach to achieving

happiness (Geelong, 2007-8). The future measure of the efforts of these 160 Australian teachers

must wait until their students graduate; more pilot projects such as this are currently (2006) being

undertaken in the UK.

Popkewitzalso features how culture is a defining factor in understanding how happiness

is implemented in pedagogy. His interpretation of Dewey is of a traveling pragmatist who met

with different world cultures, and observed different educational systems, dedicated to the

betterment and happiness of each villager. Dewey, while in Turkey, continually linked the

educative processes of IMECE, (a precursor of Freirian educational transformation and liberation

education) with community and work, to turn the cooperative work of the villagers into a

conscious activity.

The great weakness of almost all schools, a weakness not confined in any sense to Turkey, is

the separation of school studies from the actual life of children and the conditions and

opportunities of the environment. The school comes to be isolated and what is done there does

not seem to the pupils to have anything to do with the real life around them, but to form a

separate and artificial world (Dewey, 1924, vol 15).

Makiguchi, an educator so influenced by the utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill that he set

his life work to ameliorate the state of education in Japan, was also influenced by Dewey’s

research. Mill’s utilitarianism purported that education’s goal is the means for the happiness of

oneself and the collective. Hubert Spencer challenged Mill, retorted that education is the

preparation for a perfect life that would bring with it happiness (as a product). Mills inspired


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Makiguchi in his fight against the test based pedagogy of pre-war Japan, and he passionately

wrote that happiness is the universal foundation for value creation pedagogy (Kumagai, 1997).

Publically advocating for nonviolence, he embedded peace directly in pedagogy defying

pre-war Japan’s growing militarism, resulting in his arrest for thought crimes. His students

embraced his vision so that worldwide currently twelve million students attend Soka

prekindergarten through to university. Makaguchi used scientific and rational practices, yet it was

Buddhism’s Lotus Sutra that inspired him to integrate value-creation into pedagogy, balancing

rote learning with a student centered philosophy. Makiguchi clearly believed education is an

extension of socialization, and that capabilities and virtues are to be fostered as the most

important intent. In much the same way that Dewey viewed the world, Makiguchi was driven:

almost to distraction by the intense desire to prevent the present deplorable situation—ten

million of our children and students forced to endure the agonies of cutthroat competition, the

difficulty of getting into good schools, the "examination hell" and the struggle for jobs after

graduation--from afflicting the next generation. I cannot afford to attend in any way to the

vagaries of praise or censure, the opinions and judgments of the world. (Makiguchi, 1930)

Giroux deconstructs the foundations of oppression, tackles political resistance, and stands

for the position of freedom courageously. In examining the cultural heart of America, he reveals

the political propaganda, racism, and sweatshops supporting a historically revered media giant.

Giroux’s message speaks to this in, The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence:

I wanted to in some way talk about how Disney represented the merger of corporate power,

entertainment, and what I call public pedagogy. And all of a sudden I was getting tons of radio

interviews and I guess its fair to say for the most part that 80% of those interviews were really

quite hostile. Especially the talk radio interviews in which the public would call in, and the

basic comment would be, “how could you possibly, possibly believe that Disney is political?”

Or, “how can you possibly think that there isn't something entirely innocent in the world of

Disney? (Giroux as quoted by The Sun, 2001)

Giroux contributes to defining the culture of happiness by revealing media hegemony and

false consciousness. Happiness may seem to be merely pleasure, but pleasure is temporal, and the

premise Giroux speaks to is how critical awareness contributes to expanding personal freedom.

Providing students entertainment and a pleasurable experience without meaning prevents full

engagement and self-actualization processes (Feynman, 1999). By talking-to-power, Giroux


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makes known how white races are presupposed to advance, where strong, feminist characters are

ironically young and pretty perpetuating inequity and learned helplessness. He debunks

dangerous misconceptions (I.e. true love can bloom from violence; happiness is effortless and

static) while his message acts as an invitation to freedom, positioning youth to fully realize their

lives. When birthright, enchantment, and luck fail to provide access to resources, new plans can

be imagined. Giroux stabs through the illusion of happiness in much the same manner as Freire.

Freire’s faith in the people themselves is passionately stated in the beginning of his seminal

work. Freirev (1994) speaks to the lives of Brazilian peasant fishers, and their relationships with

their children, explaining that their lives may be seen as too free and boundless. This captures

how a human-centred philosophy is put into daily practice through trust, and connection and

outlines pedagogy where happiness, community, and sustainability can abound should the

systems of governance be egalitarian—which is not the case. The tensions between worldviews

where education, community are controlled by the politics of power and wealth. From an

ecological perspective, the sense of obeisance to the sea was neatly replaced by subjugation to a

higher and increasingly global authority. Life was forever transmogrified:

… the fishers are simply relying on nature itself, on the world, on the sea in and with

which their children win an experience of themselves, to be the source of freedom’s necessary

limits. It was as if, softening or trimming down their duty as their children’s educators, fathers

and mothers shared them with the sea, with the world itself, to which it would fall, thought

their children’s practice, to delineate their responsibilities. In this fashion, the children would

be expected to learn naturally what they might and might not do.

Indeed, the fishers lived a life of enormous contradiction…. I recall that, in the fishing

season, we delved into the reason why various students were missing school so frequently.

Students and parents separately replied. The students, “Because we’re free.” The parents,

“Because they’re free. They’ll go back some day….

It is particularly exciting and controversial to witness the growth and current relevancy of

Freire, Makaguchi, and Dewey. Their work has been joined together and replicated in Latin

America (Brazil most particularly), Japan, in the inner cities of America, and most internationally

in SOKA universities. Dewey encourages educators to link equity with education in situ and

provides multiple examples whereby tribal peoples are responsible for creating a curriculum that

reflects their needs and practices. Education was seen to pollinate the ground around it—at this


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point it was not appropriated to ensure a high GDP, but was still integrated into social capital.

“Placing happiness at the centre of debates around aims does not mean a lack of attention to

vocational and to the economic – as John Dewey was so careful to point out” (Smith, 2005).

Compare Dewey’s times with the current UNICEF site stating that: “Hundreds of

thousands of girls are out of school. In rural areas, a lack of schools and classrooms means that

some teachers have more than 100 students per class. Child labour remains widespread, as does

child marriage” (UNICEF, 2010). Rather than making clear the relationships between gender or

race relations and inequity which some consider to be a short coming of Freire, he is undoubtedly

concerned with the oppressive state of poverty and the political climate of students:

One of my concerns, at the time, as valid then as it is now, was with the political consequences

of that kind of relationship between parents and children, which later becomes that between

teachers and pupils, when it came to the learning process of our infant democracy. It was as if

family and school were so completely subjected to the greater context of global society that

they could do nothing but reproduce the authoritarian ideology (Freire, 1994, pp. 13-14).

The dominant political class exploited a deep sense of trust, reciprocity and altruism

between a people and their environment, one that ultimately committed Freire to exile as he

successfully taught five million peasants to read in one year (1999, pp 199-224)vi. The legacy

Freire left is causing millions of Latin Americans to engage in the education processes,

democracy—and movement towards self expression. People will never work towards a pedagogy

of happiness if they are not conscientized—students must be able to envision a space where

learning is a pleasure, where they not only love to learn—where they are so impassioned, but

where they are engaged, and work toward a central purpose. A place where life experiences turn

into what is euphemistically called teaching moments—a place of hope—a place that moves

beyond economic privilege and power to subjugate the wills of the few on the lives of the

indigent.

The power of positive psychology—and its potential disconcerting abuse—is apparent. At

a national level, the ecological impact of happiness reveals that contented citizens are driven less

by incessant wants, and consumption when their efforts become focused on sustainability and

conservation. Understanding how these impacts affect a nation stem from Nobel Prize economist

Amartya Sen’s research on the Capabilities Approach (1999). Unlike Freire, Sen’s work reflects

his philosophical positioning that race and gender are mainstream issues that require addressing.


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Sen developed the term Capabilities Approach as a way of understanding freedoms that

indirectly contribute to a nation’s economy. A popular primary example is found in the results of

educating women-- they not only tend to contribute financially but demographically have smaller

and healthier families thereby increasing national productivity. This approach of realizing

freedoms features three central activities: the distribution of welfare, the reduction in materialism,

and the development of a confluence of activities leading to happiness. Rather than focusing on a

nation’s GDP, the Capabilities Approach broke through traditional ways of instituting welfare

economics, paying attention to functional capabilities that include positive or real freedoms. This

respect for heterogeneity (gender, culture etc), results in understanding how welfare is a multi-

dimensional issue. Sen’s themes include activities that both foster happiness, and limit extreme

materialism is nothing short of revolutionary. Sen laid the groundwork for the genesis of the

UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) (Sen, 1999) and continues to birth policy debates around

the question what is human development. Although more firmly embedded in UN policy, the

Capabilities Approach is slow to be centrally positioned in western pedagogy. In fact, schools are

more heavily reliant on consumer products than ever before as witnessed in cafeterias, pop

machines, and school media.

Sen’s pro-feminist approach to human wellbeing underscored the importance the

contributions of freedoms of choice, and tolerance, as now understood in microeconomics

consumer theory (Sen, 1979). Nussbaum2 further developed Sen’s work, advocating democracy

shall be positive to: life; bodily health; bodily integrity; senses/imagination/thought; emotions;

practical reason; affiliation; other species; play and control over one’s environment (Nussbaum,

& Sen, 1993). His work paved the way for future work that lead to the emergence of new fields

of study. Behavioural economics—how decisions affect lives and the economy—he invites others

to view economics through the lens of psychology.

Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize for his work integrating psychology and

mainstream economics exemplifying that one’s life cannot be treated outside of the culture and

times one was born into including the psychological perceptions of self. Kahneman (2002)

contributed to behavioural economics. He uses this anchor point providing a personal meaning

2The Nun Study (2008) indicated that Nuns who reported being happy and satisfied lived ten years longer compared with Nuns who were more critical or dissatisfied (Danner, 2008). The, Undo Effect Theory, suggests that positive emotions undo the negative effects of stress that may increase disease and reduce longevity (Fredrickson, 2001).


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over one’s life in an anecdote where Kahneman explains how his childhood, spent in Nazi-

occupied France, contributed to his entering the field of psychology:

It must have been late 1941 or early 1942. Jews were required to wear the Star of David and to

obey a 6 p.m. curfew. I had gone to play with a Christian friend and had stayed too late. I

turned my brown sweater inside out to walk the few blocks home. As I was walking down an

empty street, I saw a German soldier approaching. He was wearing the black uniform that I

had been told to fear more than others – the one worn by specially recruited SS soldiers. As I

came closer to him, trying to walk fast, I noticed that he was looking at me intently. Then he

beckoned me over, picked me up, and hugged me. I was terrified that he would notice the star

inside my sweater. He was speaking to me with great emotion, in German. When he put me

down, he opened his wallet, showed me a picture of a boy, and gave me some money. I went

home more certain than ever that my mother was right: people were endlessly complicated and

interesting. (Kahneman, 2002)

As a behavioural economist, Frey notes how the process of decision- making itself

influences the decisions that are made from an economic perspective. His research indicates that

cross-culturally indicators of happiness are: reliability, validity, consistency and comparability

(2002, p.32). If a quality cannot be understood in a reliable fashion then it cannot be measured.

Reliability concerns stability where (all other things being equal) one has similar responses to

questions, in other words, answers are independent of mood disorders or flukes. Frey understands

validity as ‘the interior landscape of the person’. Happiness is part of a complex context and a

person may be blind to their personal bias—in other words, it may be that the person reports they

have ‘no opinion’ and distort or over/understate happiness, perceiving this to be a socially

desirable answer. For example they opt to represent themselves as having an unhappy artist

temperament (Frey & Stutzer, 2002, p.33). Consistency involves how a person measures and

reports happiness on various levels.

Introducing the need to understand one’s self as part of a complex system mating

genetics, biology, and psychological functioning, Seligman recounts an event indicating there is

much to learn about creating engaged pedagogy through designing intentional activity. Following

is a whimsical illustration of Csíkszentmihályi’s Flow:

Flow, however, doesn't have shortcuts… Julian Jaynes, a peculiar but wonderful man, was a

research associate at Princeton when I was an undergraduate…. He was given a South


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American lizard as a laboratory pet, and the problem about the lizard was that no one could

figure out what it ate, so the lizard was dying. Julian killed flies, and the lizard wouldn't eat

them; blended mangos and papayas, the lizard wouldn't eat them; Chinese take-out, the lizard

had no interest. One day Julian came in and the lizard was in torpor, lying in the corner. He

offered the lizard his lunch, but the lizard had no interest in ham on rye. He read the New York

Times and he put the first section down on top of the ham on rye. The lizard took one look at

this configuration, got up on its hind legs, stalked across the room, leapt up on the table,

shredded the New York Times, and ate the ham sandwich. (Eudaemonia, 2004-03-23).

Research that embraces the complex nature and physiological and emotional aspects of

self come from studies like this one concerning loneliness and gender as extracted from

Cacciopo’s heart study data. John Cacciopo reveals that loneliness is more contagious between

women than men (Cacciopo et al., 2009) in data from approximately 5,000 participants analyzed

in the Framingham Heart Study (1983-2003). The stigma associated with loneliness may

exacerbate anxiety and neuroticism: friendships may start to fray; small insults are harboured;

and difficult incidences are interpreted negatively rather than taken in stride. Research findings

show that on average each happy friend boosts one’s own happiness by approximately nine per

cent, while having grumpy friends decreased levels by seven per cent. Loneliness makes you

desire to connect with other people, yet paradoxically, one may be afraid of connecting. Cacciopo

offers antidotes in reducing loneliness through social cognition therapy and increasing one’s

emotional quotient.

The implications of this for the health of matriculating students are far-reaching. Reducing

loneliness calls for innovation in team/group/individual studying methods and in regards to

online learning, meaningful interaction and attention is vital for at risk students. Because

loneliness is associated with a variety of mental and physical diseases that can shorten life, it

is important for people to recognize loneliness and help those people connect with their social

group before the lonely individuals move to the edges…. Society may benefit by aggressively

targeting the people in the periphery to help repair their social networks and to create a

protective barrier against loneliness that can keep the whole network from unravelling.

(Cacioppo, 2009)

Although the statistic of twenty-five percent is recently challenged due to social

networking and cell phone technology, social isolation reveals that since 1985 an increasing


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percent of Americans have no close friends (McPherson et al, 2006). Certainly the meanings

of friendship attachment, and interactions between friends have changed, principles to which

Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama adheres out of the more spiritual place of

Buddhism.

Gyatso states that happiness is to be understood and activated as both an individual and

collective path (1992). His vision of happiness is that it is a necessary political tool and he

promotes it as a universal right, one useful to establish sustainable ecological systems. “Although

the increasing interdependence among nations might be expected to generate more sympathetic

cooperation, it is difficult to achieve a spirit of genuine cooperation as long as people remain

indifferent to the feelings and happiness of others” (Gyatso, 2010). On creating democracy he

echoes political scientist, Ronald Inglehart (2009) advocating:

Whether we are concerned with suffering born of poverty, with denial of freedom, with armed

conflict, or with a reckless attitude to the natural environment everywhere, we should not view

these events in isolation. Eventually their repercussions are felt by all of us. We therefore,

need effective international action to address these global issues from the perspective of the

oneness of humanity, and from a profound understanding of the deeply interconnected nature

of today's world. (Gyatso, 2008)

Cacciopo states that physiologically, “loneliness can increase vascular resistance (slows

blood flow throughout the body) contributes to diabetes, high blood pressure, a rise in cortical

(stress) hormones, altered gene transcription (a decrease sensitivity to physiological symptoms),

obesity, and compromises the immune system” (Cacciopo et al, 2009).vii Further to this, the state

of loneliness can reify isolation and contribute to living alone—yet, people who live alone do not

necessarily feel lonely if they have a safe social surround. Cacciopo (2009) cites colleagues

Fowler and Christakis (Christakis, 2002; Foster, 2008) who find “happiness to be more likely

than unhappiness to spread through social networks” (Cacciopo, Fowler & Christakis, 2009)

affirm Gyatso’s teachings that valuing community, gratitude and trust, act as contributors in the

creation of happiness.

Indeed we cannot separate self from humanity nor from taking interest in global affairs or

cosmopolitan thinking; all are important aspects of education. To exemplify, Sen’s research on

the Capabilities Approach began at the early age of nine when Sen witnessed three million

Bengalis die needlessly from famine. His anchor of welfare into economic policy was directly


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due to wanting to solve a community problem. It is not coincidence that another Bengali Nobel

laureate, Mohammed Yunus worked on microfinance to reduce poverty through community

activities and principles. The internationally acclaimed Grameen Bank Program reflects the

importance of pedagogy in with community involvement. Tying community to schooling is an

ancient consideration, yet much of western pedagogy still divorces education from community

life. Students benefit from experiencing their environments, and outcome and curriculum based

goals deprive students from a sense of purpose inherent to their local environments.

In the spirit of engaged research, Sen’s first name, Amartya or Immortal One, was given

to him from another Bangladeshi Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore . Sen was educated at

Patha Bhavana, The School of Ideas, founded by the poet. Sen witnessed from an early age that

formulating an idea (theoretical concept) and putting it to action was achievable. Tagore

specifically located the village school, Santiniketan or Peaceful Abode, in a naturally beautiful

environment designed to foster learning. As featured on Geneva’s Global Humanitarian Forum,

Sen describes the school’s principles as:

…a co-educational school with many progressive features. The emphasis was on fostering

curiosity rather than competitive excellence, and any kind of interest in examination

performances and grades was severely discouraged. I can remember one of my teachers telling

me about a fellow student, ‘even though her grades are very good, she is quite a serious

thinker.’ Since I was, I have to confess, a reasonably good student, I had to do my best to

efface that stigma. (Sen, ND, GHF)

Sen measured: gender rights, famine, empowerment, the ability to go about without

shame, psychological, and subjective wellbeing. It is clear that his contribution justified right

livelihood harbouring a vision of peace, prosperity, gender equity, creativity, and happiness.

Living a balanced, and virtuous life can and does contribute to a sense of wellbeing. Survey

results counter the notion that people are happier when they are richer. The way we spend our

time also contributes to our subjective wellbeing. This is largely inconsistent with the notion that

having money makes us happier—why? Kahneman suggests that it is a focusing illusion that

richer people are happier where people predictably overestimate the effect of life circumstances

on mood.

People with greater income tend to devote relatively more of their time to work, compulsory

non-work activities (such as shopping and childcare) and active leisure (such as exercise), and


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less of their time to passive leisure activities (such as watching TV). On balance, the activities

that high-income individuals spend relatively more of their time engaged in are associated

with no greater happiness, on average, but with slightly higher tension and stress. (Kahneman,

et al. 2006, p. 2)

In this light one conjectures that schools can responsibly empower students by reducing

inequity, isolation, fear, and stress. Education can foster positive connections with others by

anchoring to healthy community patterns—as pedagogy this should predictably result in SWB

increases—a study is in order.

One of the effects of reduced social time contributes to developing broader and shallower

friendship-groups, which are pseudo-friendships in many cases. Contributions to this emergent

trend include: increased commuting time, work reliant on technology and the general use of

computer, television, and the media. This has lead to weaker social ties, a condition that is

enhanced as people also rely on text or alternate messaging rather than face-to-face methods.

Robin Dunbar’s invention lead to Dunbar’s Number, an approximation that estimates one

hundred-fifty people to be the maximum number and "cognitive limit to the number of

individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships". In his estimation, “the

lack of social contact, the lack of sense of community, may be the most pressing social problem

of the new millennium” (Dunbar, 2006). How and why is social contact minimized in an ever-

populating world?

According to Buddhist principles, developing awareness around learning how we attach

to others increases our likelihood of success (Gyatso & Cutler, 2009; Gyatso, 2010). In one

example given by psychologist Cutler, he depicts a human tendency—to feel slighted when one

hears others in conversation that exclude them—by understanding this and reframing it, one can

reduce being vulnerable to loneliness during holiday seasons. Cutler (2009) offers the sage advice

to avoid feeling slighted, celebrate that others are only sharing time together. His cognitive

therapy approach rationalizes the importance to connect, relearn, and value community while

developing trust (trust is a key determinant of happiness). This simple skill application is useful

to group learning in education.

Describing how one can become happier, Gyatso provides a simple outline. “Generally

speaking, one begins by identifying those factors which lead to happiness [sukha] and those that

lead to suffering. Having done his, one then sets about gradually eliminating those factors which


29

lead to suffering and cultivating those who lead to happiness" (Gyatso, 2006). This complements

Seligman’s findings on negative and positive affects in measuring SWB. In Buddhist practice,

there is no difference made between the mind and emotions; “sukha can occur by sustained

training in attention, emotional balance, and mindfulness, so that one can learn to distinguish

between the way things are as they appear to the senses and the conceptual superimpositions one

projects upon them” (Ekman, 2005).

Gyatso offers this Buddhist process in explanation of making many small transitions

towards happiness. It requires that people want and need to safely observe the relationship

between people’s behaviour, and their practice of first despair, then happiness. Perhaps people

who watch media are apprentices studying safe ways to include themselves in society while

practicing to be social. It is a safe rehearsal as they come to learn how to take responsibility for

the inevitable mistakes humans will make in social settings. Part of the transition to happiness

comes with the acknowledgement that forgiveness is at the heart of this. Forgiveness requires not

only compassion for others—but also compassion for self— using empathy as a vehicle (Gyatso

& Cutler, 2009 p. 32).

Coauthor and psychiatrist Howard Cutler summates that since interviewing Gyatso, his

revised action plan as a “treatment for depression is to include one act of community involvement

each week” (Gyatso & Cutler, 2009, p.14). Gyatso links community practice with consciousness,

listing steps on 1) developing awareness of how to bond with others and the benefits of

community, 2) being open and willing to develop this community, and 3) taking action, and

increasing personal contact. By becoming aware how negative feelings arise, how they are

experienced and their patterns, one also become aware that re-establishing human bonds

promotes health benefits (lower death rates, faster recovery higher immune systems). This gives a

sense of purpose to creating harmonious communities fostering this willingness to want to be

happy and act accordingly (Ekman, 2005).

Extreme individualism, a western meme complex rewarding few individuals while

fostering individual rights, may lead away from collective welfare and happiness unless a balance

is achieved between both perspectives (Gyatso, 2009, p.37). One research finding indicates that

Scandinavian countries have a struck a balance between the tensions of individual and collective

interests, a vastly different experience compared to countries like Romania and others in the

Eastern Block. Increasingly findings represented visually in scales, maps and inventories,


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position the happiness measures between individualist and collectivist cultures, traditional and

secular values, and controlled or expressive life-ways.

For international students, refugees, and immigrants, loneliness is difficult enough to

master in the first months during relocation. Being actively isolated by the surrounding

community is one of the problems facing immigrants. Xenophobia and immigrant saturation

produce fear to varying levels. Internationals and immigrants may be seen to reduce employment,

educational opportunity, and economic capital in surrounding communities. James Lawrence

states that social cohesion may fray as immigrants enter established society. He notes that using

multifaceted approaches and long-term analysis indicates we tend to hold misconceptions in

interpreting the diversity and social capital immigrants bring to communities. In his initial results

Lawrence’s findings reveal that when diversity increases it acts as a stressor placing a negative

impact on social capital. Yet another effect show diversity “simultaneously improves perceptions

of, and relations between, ethnic groups” (2009). Community programs can improve

relationships by correctly interpreting and implementing the values of others.

Being capable of reading one’s communities, having a sense of one’s role, participating

meaningfully into the health and sustenance of that community all act to advantage one to

becoming satisfied with their place in society. These are cultural capitals and attributes in

creating meaningful human bonds (Frey & Stutzer, 2002, p.35). In school curriculum, developing

a school and community culture where one knows what is expected in a consistent, valid, and

reliable practice, and can effect change from this position, are securing advantages. Developing a

culture of similar, predictable, and consistent values means people are more likely to feel secure

and accepted in their interactions. This is a typical finding in liberal democracies where people

can control their tasks, communication with others, and the way they spend time. From an

individual level, comes the quality and dynamic of flow.

How people spend their time, and the way they engage in activities can contribute to

happiness in ways that affluence cannot. Ever since Csikszentmihalyi pondered why psychology

experiments were being performed on rats rather than humans he has been studying what makes

people happy. Originally he studied the way creative people made music, acted, or painted.

Using a method where participants were contacted at random intervals he invited them to mark

down what they were doing, and with whom. In charting more than 10,000 responses he found

consistent patterns– or states of concentration and creativity.


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Participants tended to be more dedicated to internal reward systems—I.e. doing things

they liked, rather than things that were rewarded externally (Csikszentmihalyi, 2005; Ariely,

2009). To achieving enduring happiness takes concentrated efforts, it is not simply a random

event that just happens, nor is it something that the wealthy can purchase or store (Vaillant, &

Mukamal, 2001).

Wealth and comfort are not sufficient conditions for a happy life…. Flow, whether in

creative arts, athletic competition, engaging work, or spiritual practice, is a deep and

uniquely human motivation to excel, exceed, and triumph over limitation…. Happiness is

not simply flow nor an emotional state nor even the experience of pleasure…. Happiness

involves the continual challenge to go beyond oneself as part of something greater than

one's own self-interest. (Csikszentmihalyi, 2005)

The expression “flow” was used to explain the common denominator of people who

profess to be happy with their lives. Flow comes out of practice; it is an art form requiring

concentration and challenge. People who are in flow feel engaged in a process of creative

unfolding of something bigger than they are. Other phrases used to describe this are: being in the

zone or being blissed out and rapture the Zen-like mystical experience of artists (Fredrickson,

2001). Essentially activities that make time stand still qualify for flow experiences.

Csikszentmihalyi is careful to differentiate between enjoyment and pleasure. Enjoyment

challenges us and demands total attention, while pleasure’s participation is passive. When one

uses focus to gain mastery they assist in their growth producing genuine happiness (1990). “The

most obvious component of happiness, I found out, is intense concentration, which is the main

reason that activities such as music, art, literature, sports and other forms of leisure have

survived” (2002).

Teachers and students can increase flow experiences decreasing interruptions by focusing

on challenging task-centeredness rather than routine, or time constrained activities. Another flow

technique concerns communication, here students complete their self-directed learning and share

their work results with others in meaningful and empowering ways. This excerpt from his

abstract on flow offers insight into ways that support a culture of happiness:

School activities rate below average scores in happiness, while social, active and passive

leisure activities are above average. Particular companions also correlate to differing level of

happiness. Being alone rates the lowest levels of happiness, while being with friend


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corresponds to the highest. Person-level averages of happiness suggest that both higher social

class and age correlate with lower levels of happiness, while gender and race do not.

Paradoxically, youth who spend more time in school and social activities are happier than

those who spend less. Unexpectedly, students who spend more time pleasure-reading report

lower levels of happiness. Finally, feeling good about the self, excited, proud, sociable, active

as well as being in the conditions for flow experience are the strongest predictors of trait

happiness. (Csikszentmihalyi, 2003)

Schwartz (2002) observes that flow experiences are conflicted as people self-consciously

compare self to others. Dissatisfaction occurs when comparing one’s satisfaction or results with

another, or making choices exacted through decision-making processes. Over assessing,

analyzing, and neuroticism are also problematic (Csikszentmihalyi, 2005).

Choice is a commonly held maxim believed to contribute and enhance welfare, freedom

and happiness—is this a misconception? Addressing the relationship between choice and

happiness is important, yet, do people feel worse off as the options they face increase (Schwartz,

2002). Schwartz’s research revealed two types of personalities, the first he termed maximizers.

They exist in stark contrast to their compliment—satisficers (Schwartz, 2002, p.1178).

Maximizers wish to make the best decision—satisficers, on the other hand, want to make a

decision that is good enough. Schwartz developed a Maximization Scale to measure individual

differences. Maximizers showed negative correlations between maximization, happiness,

optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. He found a positive correlation between

“maximization and depression, perfectionism, and regret” (Schwartz, 2002, p.1184).

Maximizers are determinedly less happy than non-maximizers in decision-making and are

more likely to compare themselves to others. Maximizers are: negatively affected by upward

social comparison, more sensitive to regret, and less satisfied in their end bargaining results. In

conclusion, maximizing and choice are linked with regret, adaptation, and self-blame.

When we correlated scores on our Maximization Scale with well established measures of well-

being, we found that maximizers reported significantly less life satisfaction, happiness,

optimism, and self-esteem, and significantly more regret and depression, than did satisficers.

People seemed to suffer from information that their performance was worse than that of a

peer. (Schwartz, 2002, p.1184)

Maximizers scoring high on the maximizing scale, take more time to choose, compare,


33

and look at the choices of others. Yet, they tend to be less happy with their choices, and feel

emptier compared with satisficers. In conclusion, Schwartz playfully suggests, “the secret to

happiness is having low expectations” (Schwartz, 2007, TED).

And who scores high on the maximizing scale—lawyers. Lawyer and professor, Dave

Shearon (2008) flatly states that normal students entering law schools are about to experience a

place where: “morale goes to die, both at the individual and group levels. By the end of the first

year 30% are depressed, and it goes to 40% by the end of law school.”

Poor coping methods such as drinking are attempts to try to reduce the palpable

experiences of: increased anxiety, aggression and paranoia. Law students come to college with

altruistic and intrinsic motivations, yet leave citing an extrinsic desire to practice law. “In other

words, students go from wanting to do good, to wanting to get the goods” (Shearon, 2008). It is

important to understand that lawyers lead ALL professions in reporting depressive symptoms.

Embedded in some pedagogy are techniques, constraints, and ways of interacting that prevent the

expression and development of honesty, trust, and happiness.

Dan Gilbert suggests that one can synthesize their own/others happiness (2009).

Synthesizing happiness is a skill where happiness can be both rationalized and invented in

situations when we don’t get what we want. It is a self-soothing tendency happier people use to

help ameliorate failure or missed opportunities. A person rationalizes and come to more highly

prize a situation, goods or service that they are left with. Gilbert constructed a social experiment

to exemplify: a person wants a certain painting, however they ‘find‘ it has become out of stock,

yet there is another different painting available. People who are able to cognitively ‘reinvent’

their rating of the new painting to become their favourite, obviously create a happier outcome.

The ability to synthesize happiness can be introduced in mainstream education and taught as

common knowledge allowing students to become satisfied with what is ‘good enough’ in

appropriate settings (Gilbert, 2009).

Yet encouraging this synthetic happiness is resisted, Gilbert states that learning to

transform satisfaction from dissatisfaction is not favoured in western capitalist cultures. As

citizens become self-actualized, the body politics has less control over them, as Malcolm

Gladwell has popularized in The Outliers (2009). Good enough does not have the same driving

force as the Protestant work ethic’s aspiring for perfection. It doesn’t move the economic engine

(Gilbert, 2007). Models of perfection achievement have spilled over into the education system


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leaving many insecure, anxious children doubting their worth. Erich Fromm (1957, p. 67)

identified it here:

Modern capitalism needs men who co-operate smoothly and in large numbers; who want to

consume more and more; and whose tastes are standardized and can be easily influenced and

anticipated…. What is the outcome? Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow

men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life forces

as an investment which must bring him the maximum profit obtainable under existing market

conditions.

Gilbert continues that when people are stuck with a decision and have no choice in

reversing that decision—they more readily come to really like what they receive. This has direct

relevance to many actions from choosing marriage partners, staying in school, choosing

programs, to buying material goods etc. Interestingly enough, Gilbert’s states that when a

condition to choose exists opening a ‘reversible condition’ this option does not help synthesize

happiness (Gilbert, 2009). When one has no ability to return a gift—say a picture—they tend to

bond with it more strongly. However, when one has a choice to return it, they begin to second

guess their decision and come to report liking it less—or not at all. As society is hit by consumer

advertising, understanding that having three or more choices can lead to confusion and distress is

helpful. Awareness of what creates stress helps one acknowledge and reduce confusing situations

is a helpful avoidance technique (Ariely, 2009).

Testing is a typical stressor. Objective testing commonly use multiple choices/response

and Likert scale questioning suitable to computer environments-- limiting self-discovery and

exploration. New ways of testing that promote intrinsic learning can and should be explored.

Evaluations where one connects meaningfully with other(s), where all learn to trust, bond,

communicate, social and factual information have been seen as time consuming-- this is not

necessarily problematic. Effective uses of time can lead to reductions in crime, early pregnancy,

and unemployment as well as an increase in self-worth and efficacy for all those involved as

witnessed in the Perry Pre-school Program of Ypsilanti New York, now reinvented into the

acclaimed Head Start Programs (1993).

Nearly 40 years ago, the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project developed a high-quality

educational approach focusing on 3- and 4-year-olds at risk for school failure. The

longitudinal study has found that not only was the project effective as an educational


35

intervention, it also demonstrated other positive outcomes, including a significantly lower

rate of crime and delinquency and a lower incidence of teenage pregnancy and welfare

dependency. By the age of 27, program participants were nearly three times as likely to

own their own homes than the control group and less than half as likely to be receiving

public assistance.

And in Makaguchi’s SOKA education, the focus is to empower students with happiness central to

their pedagogy. Ikeda, the current SOKA visionary, objects “to using schools to serve

nationalistic or corporate ends. Japan did so throughout the past century, and is now suffering the

consequences” (2001) Rather education is characterized by:

joyful, enthusiastic students; wise, affectionate teachers; and a prevailing belief that every

student has a unique and important role to play in the world. I have visited many of those

campuses; no experience has ever given me greater cause for optimism about the future.

(Miller, 2001)

Makaguchi’s pedagogy addresses such social ills as juvenile delinquency much in the same

fashion as the Perry Preschool. Ikeda discusses the problem of juvenile delinquency as a

reduction of social cohesion and ability to bond with others with trust, respect, in contrast

educators have the position to connect lives in creative, empowering fashion:

If these bonds are severed, the human spirit can only roam aimlessly in the pitch darkness

of solitude. . . . It is the responsibility of adults to patiently restore the ability to

communicate by listening to the voices of isolated children calling out for help from the

darkness. There is a famous episode involving Socrates in which his influence on youth is

described as being like an electric ray that stings those who touch it. He explains that he

can electrify others because he is electrified himself. Similarly, teachers must constantly be

creative if they are to evoke creativity in their students. This is an essential quality for

educators. Most important is the teacher's attitude. Human interaction is the key. (Ikeda,

2002, pp. 74-75).

Makiguchi understood happiness is the goal of both life and education, beginning with the

recognition that “although humans cannot create matter, they can create value, and value only.

When we praise persons for their strength of character, we are really acknowledging their

superior ability to create value” (Makiguchi, 1983-1988, vol. 5, p. 13; as quoted in Makiguchi,

2001). In militaristic times, Makiguchi renounced violence and upheld peace, his ultimate belief,


36

was that education must include the attainment of happiness. His vision was realized through his

students, Toda and Ikeda. The Soka school system, is nothing short of revolutionary, a place

where the “significance of value creating pedagogy as described here is born of humanism based

on a love for life. This is the basis of peace” (Kumagai, 1997). Makiguchi created a culture

around happiness that he believes is integral in creating a sustainable peace.

Discussion

Policy relevance

Former Harvard president, Dr. Bok, carries a good deal of political weight in America and

so it is not surprising that his book, The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn

from the New Research on Well-Being, is being scrutinized by policymakers world wide. He

begins by considering the verity of happiness research, establishes that the research has merit as a

respectable science, and concludes with how happiness offers solutions relevant to change policy.

Bok traces sage advice that would stimulate progressive changes in economic growth,

egalitarianism, employment, health care, mental illness, family programs, and education.

Interviewed in The New Yorker (Kolbert, 2010-03-22) Bok states his doubts concerning

the rational of employment declaring that if “rising incomes have failed to make Americans

happier over the last fifty years, what is the point of working such long hours and risking

environmental disaster in order to keep on doubling and redoubling our Gross Domestic Product

(Bok, 2010, p. 12). If American policies act to reflect this then certainly improvements would be

realized concerning time deprivation and family values. Reciprocally, welfare systems that

empower and educate the marginalized have a real purpose. They won’t be just a hand out to get

the poor off the streets—but will act as mechanisms to foster and engage within their culture.

As a minimum, Bok’s text will begin a dialogue between the American peoples and

stimulate debate and application. Currently, NZ, the UK, and Australian policymakersare

working to realize wellbeing policies through educating in schools and community projects.

Education based not on the misconception that happiness is due to affluence (incomes over

60,000 USD), but intrinsically on the pleasures and communication that learning brings, will

necessitate paradigm shifts in pedagogy. Access to education and high quality childcare ease

societal distress, and education for the elderly can result in volunteering in schools or with youth

in ways that increase the social capital of all groups. The 2009 French commission, Towards a

better measure of wellbeing, joined economists Stiglitz and Sen resulting in data considering the


37

effects of inequity patterns and the benefits of creating an international standard of wellbeing:

First, people from lower occupational classes who have less education and income tend to

die at younger ages and to suffer, within their shorter lifetimes, a higher prevalence of

various health problems. Second, these differences in health conditions do not merely

reflect worse outcomes for people at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale but

extend to people throughout the socio-economic hierarchy, i.e. they display a “social

gradient”: for example, life expectancy in the United Kingdom increases when moving

from unskilled manual workers to skilled ones, from manual to non-manual workers, from

lower-ranked office workers to higher-ranked staff. While these patterns in health

inequalities have an obvious relevance for assessing quality of life, existing measures do

not allow cross-country comparisons of their magnitude, due to differences in the measures

of health outcomes used, in the individual characteristics considered (education, income,

ethnicity), and in the reference population and geographic coverage of the various national

studies. (Stiglitz, 2009-09-19)

Understanding how social forces reciprocally interact as a mutually beneficent organic

system is not new, educator M. Wheatley; biologists L. Margulis and D. Suzuki have championed

these ideas along with economist H. Daly for two decades. Challenges to these ways of thinking

arise when financial policies are implemented that benefit corporations and capitalists rather than

their constituents. To embed solutions in both formal and informal pedagogy honours the

reciprocal and necessary relations between communities and their schools.

Bok publically addresses happiness as a revolutionary subject with the intent to realize its

importance. Harvard is positioned to address this issue—thousands of undergrads will graduate

from the most popular course on campus—Tal Ben-Shahar’s positive psychology course

—and equally astounding is the fact that hundreds of other campuses are following suit.

A lack of wellbeing may underlay situations where students drop out, fail, report illness,

experience undue stress, violence, abuse, or experience malaise and apathy. They are also less

empowered or efficacious (Bandura, 1997) to apply knowledge to real life situations or promote

peace and prosperity. After their educational process, students may still fail to gain meaningful

employment opportunities—and these may be forecasted as indicators of unhappiness,

depression, or loneliness extant in education. This can be ameliorated as emphasized by

Peterson's A Primer in Positive Psychology (2007), as he explains:


38

I believe that people possess signature strengths akin to what Allport (1961) identified

decades ago as personal traits. These are strengths of character that a person owns,

celebrates, and frequently exercises. In our interviews with adults, we find that almost

everyone can readily identify a handful of strengths as very much their own, typically

between two and five.

One can only know one’s strengths in context with others. Whether it is a question of early

childhood development, educational attainment, labour market entry, or aging well in retirement,

knowing people to turn to for resources and support may make a difference both for getting by

and getting ahead. And what is true for individuals is also true for groups and organizations:

those with the right mix of social connections may be able to negotiate more effectively the

various challenges they face, from economic growth and community development to crime

prevention and engaging an active citizenry. (Scott, 2005, p.4)

In fact, a growing social movement promoting cultures of peace, happiness, and

wellbeing (Ray & Anderson, 2000) is being recognized globally. This movement is noted in

cultures where citizens are healthy, and self-expressive describing positive moments shared with

learning, activities and friendships. Holding post-material values move people toward ecological

and social consciousness, welfare, sustainability and connection to others as they let go of status

through economic gain (Doctorow, 2003). Students who report a high engagement with the

process of learning, join activities, feel safe, display high levels of creativity and playfulness,

generate kindness towards others, count gratitudes, and are able to make, maintain and develop

friendships, are more likely to report being happy (Otake, 2006; Diener & Seligman, 2002;

Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi 2000-2001).

Happiness is a complex discipline, and although it has been identified by hundreds of

cultures as valuable, it has yet to be appreciated as a driving force to reduce poverty, gender bias,

sustainability, materialism, and disease (Putnam, 1995; 2007). The intent behind this research

proposal was to gather current literature, analyze stories and foster future dialogues between

educators and community workers in the MAIS community, in local curriculum design, and in

appropriate educational conferences. A publication of stories that embrace positive, engaged, and

purposeful events, valued in pedagogy, and centered on individual and community happiness can

prove to be a balm and inspiration for those experiencing hopelessness, as well as a capital to be

realized by all. Countries reporting high human development/quality of life encourage happiness


39

at a national level. The implications for creating cultures of happiness through accessible,

affordable, meaningful, engaging, and positive experiences in education and community are in

alliance with sustainable system models currently desired in policymaking.

Current policies are being employed to help indigent, underemployed population groups

to become more socially included and therefore “participate more fully in the social, economic,

and political life of their communities” (Scott, 2009, p.4). Those who will benefit include new

immigrants, the unemployed, single parents/mothers, homeless youth, and indigenous

communities.3 Canadian policymakers have a somewhat intuitive understanding of current social

consciousness, in that they are reflexively planning and creating sustainable actions (Banks,

1990; Etherington, 2004). Without this ‘clear objective function, policy analysis can lose its blind

assurance of functional rationality’ (Friedmann, 1987, p. 160). The Vanier Institute of the Family

publication reflects the American term, emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1990; 2001) rather than

happiness, note the relevance:

For educators and school administrators, nurturing emotional intelligence among students

holds out hope for improved school readiness and educational achievement. The literature has

made abundantly clear the critical link between emotional literacy and maturity and, school

preparedness and success among school age children. (Tipper, 2006)

Currently: the curricula, vision statements, drop out rates, student/parent/teacher

satisfaction reports, community and extracurricular activities from university to preschool levels

are being analysed as to how SWB is implemented. School curricula in: SOKAviii, KIPP, and the

Perry Preschoolix data are being reviewed as to how SWB is integrated with the indices of other

happiness metrics (Ikeda, 2001; Christakis & Fowler, 2009). A comparative analysis between

these and community outreach programs (see below for details), all whose educational models

3 For example, an unsettling result of policy making merging from this US research trend as presented in, Making Ends Meet (Edin, K., & Lein, L., 1997) is that single mothers who work outside the home spend twice as much per month as welfare mothers on essentials (transportation, health care, day care, and housing). These women are in positions where they either perceive they must move from welfare into jobs, or are pushed by policies that do not reflect economic reality that raising families on low-paying wages forces them back on government assistance. In the UK, women are losing their social capital as they no longer can afford to link to circles that help them improve their positions. According to Russell, “Interviewing single mothers on council estates a few years ago it was striking that most spoke about their depressing social isolation. They couldn’t afford to keep up with former friends, because they hadn’t the money to make even the most minimal gestures required of a friendship – sending birthday cards or buying rounds of drinks. As a consequence, these women’s social circles had shrunk to their mothers and their lovers, because these were the only relationships which could be maintained without the expectation of financial reciprocity” (Russell, 2006, p.93)


40

are based on the culture of happiness (pleasure, engagement, and purpose) would act as a

summation and future recommendations made.

Despite criticism that current indicators on happiness may be naïve, inaccurate or

subjective, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, The Netherlands, the USA and Canada are

committed to developing wellness indicators. For example, the UK’s New Economics

Foundation (nef) has also developed the Happy Planet Index (HPI) whereby life expectancy, life

satisfaction, and ecological sustainability reflects on public welfare. Newly elected PM, David

Cameron, committed his platform (2007) to “putting joy in people’s hearts”; his government

advisers note the correlation between Scandinavia’s high taxes and happiness. UK leadership is

extending into “other EU and UN measures devised to examine the well being of children cross

nationally” (Loc. cit.). UK’s Department of Work and Pensions is researching the national

implications “for an ageing society against 33 wellbeing indicators” and another study (Ofsted)

measures the well being of children “in every local authority in the UK, using five key measures:

emotional health, bullying, participation in sports and volunteering, substance misuse, and access

to parks and play areas” (Plummer, 2010).

Atlantic Canada has long been a region dedicated to reducing economic and social

injustice through education, enterprise and scientific thinking, as instituted by Moses Coady key

founder of the people’s Antigonish Movement. Coady’s work was centred on education for a

purpose where "we consider it good pedagogy and good psychology to begin with the economic

phase … that we may more readily attain the spiritual and cultural towards which all our efforts

are directed" (1939, p. 112). This is also the region to lead Canada’s newest quality of life

indictor: The Genuine Progress Index—GPI. Over the past twelve years Atlantic Canada have co-

created a model in staged development and are recently poised to report on the impact of

happiness on education (Braun, 2009, p46). At this same conference Helliwell contributes his

concerns that:

the trend towards short-term commitments, and the increasing of linking monetary and other

rewards to individual performance targets, especially short-term ones, may be having

corrosive effects on trust and loyalties and creating unhappiness in the process. Once the

importance of trust and engagement are digested, they might be expected to inform

almost every policy decision about the form and delivery of public services. We might

expect to see more provision of multi-use public spaces; more linkage among generations


41

in the provision of care, education, and leisure; provision of better ways for community

newcomers to give as well as get public services and social contacts; meshing of

voluntary and professional workers in more effective ways; and changing the nature of

the lessons and myths that inspire education. (Helliwell, 2005, p. 18)

In the developing world, leadership that considers the value of social capital is

progressing. Thailand’s government has partnered with education in the National Progress Index

(NPI), a tool “researching social, economic, and environmental wellbeing, and including them

into its metrics in order to develop more sustainable and comprehensive policies” (Braun, 2009,

p. 46). Chulalongkorn, Thailand’s most esteemed university has a political science department

that recently founded the School for Wellbeing Studies and Research; India, Brazil, Peru, and

Venezuela are also directly linking happiness to culture, social policy.

Conferences are focused on such topics as “Rethinking Development: Local Pathways to

Global Wellbeing." This nexus on GNH (Antigonish, 2005-06-20) was co-hosted by Genuine

Progress Index Atlantic; the Coady International Institute; Shambhala; the Centre for Bhutan

Studies; the Province of Nova Scotia; the Gorsebrook Research Institute at Saint Mary's

University; and the University of New Brunswick. Other conferences have been held in

Universities in Bhutan, Thailand and Yokohama and have featured the successes of indigenous

Haida education where non-western economic and social modalities were applied.

On an international scale, Wikiprogress is an open, and global platform whereby initiatives

on establishing measures progress are aired by both experts and practitioners; Eduwiki and

Wikiedu are sites where educators can post courses and free material for students who cannot

access traditional schools (Cape Town features predominantly) as the Open Education Resource

(OER) institution.

Examples of excellence

Two examples of community projects where happiness is embedded into pedagogy

include the acclaimed, 826 Valencia Street and the renown, Video Volunteers. Author-activist,

Dave Eggers4 teamed with Ninive Clements Calegari (1998-2002), to establish an exponentially

successful community-tutoring project on Valencia Street. The idea of turning a commercial

building into a whimsical ‘pirate storefront’ was a success as it playfully encouraged youth to

4 Eggers was recognized as one of fifty visionaries who are changing the world by Utne Reader and received the Courage

in Media Award.


42

write stories, or do homework; sustainable, it is now replicated in equally creative vogue in six

other American states. The storefront, dubbed 826 Valencia Street, offers free on and off site

writers’ workshops focusing on learning-through-writing (Eggers, 2010). Students are

enraptured, achieve states of flow, and are empowered through creative self-expression to

commit to writing stories (Csikszentmihalyi & Hunter, 2003).

The second example, is the internationally acclaimed, Video Volunteers, an organization

where youth are empowered to record social issues in their communities with the intent to create

change through awareness. Profound results of this community project are seen through activities

that have pressured governments to improve water, land, health/sanitation, employment, finance,

and community awareness—what they have accomplished is nothing short of breathtaking—their

organization is mobilizing others internationallyx (Video Volunteers, 2007).

These examples show how Community Development, action-research project

foster existing relationships and are designed to rebuild infrastructure within the area. Eggers

initially found his work was ignored and hired Calegari to advertise the project since students did

not just walk in off the streets. In fact, they were naturally afraid to enter the Pirate Storefront; in

this case an ethnographic analysis would have been productive. Eggers and Calegari considered it

fortunate that the concept took hold in such a powerful fashion after their initial blunder. Findings

indicate top down “externally generated, imposed structure impedes community autonomy and

responsibility” (Banks & Managan, 1999, p.1).

In the same spirit as the Antigonish Movement which drew on growing education based

on action, Banks began community infusion fashioning an “exploratory, descriptive, action-

research project” where dialogue with the public created a rigorous model building process

adaptable and capable of meshing with existing development concerns. In many ways The Tom

Sawyer Effect (Ariely, 2009) emulates this style. A style where people’s values and passions are

encouraged to get involved with addressing social problems, rather than driven by outcome based

modelling (Banks, 1999, p.11). Pedagogy thrives when it also has informal expressions that are

directly tied in with community sustenance and CD.

In fact, this same participatory research model can be adapted by schools in supporting a

progressive nexus between student and teacher, community and administrator to define local

problems and solutions and mobilize them into action. Banks’ model, as detailed in the

Company of Neighbours (1999), is still infusing the community years later in a sustainable


43

fashion as it relies on infusion at a grass roots level developed for and by the people. It is a

wonderful success story attesting to the empowerment of people who define their life-patterns in

ways that supported their relationships economically and socially-- their very futures expanded.

Curriculum as practice

Concerning pedagogy supporting physical health, research that created Canada's Physical

Activity Guide (2010) emphasizes the importance for five to seventeen year olds to engage in a

minimum of 6o minutes/day of moderate exercise and an additional three times a week in

strenuous exercises for 30 minutes. They go to say that full movement play for a few hours a day

is vital to reducing obesity, diabetes, and other degenerative illnesses (Canadian Society for

Exercise Physiology and ParticiPaction, 2010). Curriculum experts have forgotten to deep need

to celebrate the body—Sir Ken Robinson quipped that Educators act like talking heads with their

heads slightly more developed on one side, their bodies only necessary to get them to more

meetings (2009).

Reducing gender disparity can be encouraged in novel ways that include equitable use of

digital technologies as techie as the Wii, dance videography, laser quest, and bicycle-powered

computer use-- each of which can be employed as classroom activities in ways that combat the

dominance of male computer use 5 as boys still dominate the amount of time and use spent on

computers. Traditional activities such as gardening, historically seen to contribute to gender

disparity, control and even absenteeism and attrition rates since planting/harvest days, can be

reinvented. Encouraging equity in daily activities such as growing school produce, learning

cultural and traditional medicinal knowledge, creating sustainable solar eco-gardens on balconies,

porches, and walkways can contribute to new ways of socialization in countries where patriarchal

methods are the norm (UNESCO). Cultural and eco literacy combined with traditional

knowledge systems, once revered as pathways to gaining diverse signature strengths, are once

more evolving successful patterns and recognition (Gill, 2009).

Literacy was not always gauged on learning reading and writing skills but on proficiency

and survival competency. The overemphasis on learning English contributes to language

impoverishment, the weakened sustainability of hundreds of cultures, and marginalization of

thousands of small skills from cooking and food preparation, to home building and social

5WikiEducator.org is an open resource helping girls with computer access to self-educate reducing obstacles to access and gender inequity (Otago University, NZ).


44

activities. Reintroducing and honoring cultural competencies enhances language acquisition and

stability. Effective use of community facilities to foster skill-based activities can be found from

the Terry Fox fundraising marathons to helping elderly with outdoor chores. Biology field trips,

science projects, building, biking, skateboarding parks, skiing, martial arts, swimming and

skating not only attend to increasing physical mastery, but equally importantly, they generate a

sense of belonging. Belonging and acceptance are dominant factors in mental stability and health.

All these activities can benefit from employing those Arts where flow and intense feelings

of wellbeing abound, to document their success. Mural painting, music, theatre, video clips,

mime, student run radio shows and other art forms that are left to the imagination. Invitations to

play, a sense of collaboration for a purpose, skill sharing, new ways of interacting with teacher/

moderator/ mentor/ facilitator abound (Robinson, 2009). The reduction of authoritarian

principles, and subsequent increase of skilful authoritative/collaborative facilitator involvement

can provide an enriched respect for learning a subject well. Peacekeeping, mediation, facilitation,

wisdom, and self-discipline qualities are enhanced in the very way a subject is learned (Feynman,

1999; Fredrickson, 2001). By attending to holistic methods, conscientising, providing alternate

perspectives and theoretical expertise, a culture of happiness that includes healthy, constructivist,

reflective and engaged practice can actively be 'grown' by the participants themselves (Freire

1972, 2010; Banks, 1999; Etherington, 2004).

Culture has always evoked different types of pedagogical practices depending on

traditions, social norms, political subjugation, geography, resources, media influences,

demography (median age of population), gender equity, national health, affluence and histories.

There is no universal model leading toward a singular pedagogical practice of happiness, neither

should this be mandated nor encouraged (Dewey, 1983). In this fashion, post-modernity has an

essential role in fostering autonomous and creative ventures that organically ebb and flow

according to the needs of the communities that birth them as well as orchestrating incoming

influences. To answer the question is there a culture of happiness and can it be accurately

measured Stiglitz responds that:

Research has shown that it is possible to collect meaningful and reliable data on subjective

wellbeing. Subjective wellbeing encompasses different aspects (cognitive evaluations of one’s

life, positive emotions such as joy and pride, and negative emotions such as pain and worry):

each of them should be measured separately to derive a more comprehensive appreciation of


45

people’s lives. Quantitative measures of these subjective aspects hold the promise of

delivering not just a good measure of quality of life per se, but also a better understanding of

its determinants, reaching beyond people’s income and material conditions. Despite the

persistence of many unresolved issues, these subjective measures provide important

information about quality of life. Because of this, the types of question that have proved their

value within small-scale, unofficial surveys should be included in larger scale surveys

undertaken by official statistical offices. (Stiglitz, 2009-09-19)

A direct application of Stiglitz’ report concerns the reduction of stress as it contributes to

ill health and cardiovascular disease. Findings detail the correlation between overtime hours

worked, lack of social networks and loneliness with the likelihood of having a heart attack

(Framingham, 2005). Certainly this is true in Japan where student suicide rates have been second

only to Russia for eleven years6. Students who are learning in outcome based educational

practices where homework is assigned to them that exceed healthy levels are also at risk of

developing anxiety and depressive disorders. The cost of depression is high not only in its

immediate effects, but in its long-term consequences. In the future publications of stories that

embrace positive, engaged, and purposeful events, valued in pedagogy, and centered on

individual and community happiness can prove to be a balm and inspiration for those

experiencing hopelessness, as well as creating a capital to be proliferated by the country at large.

For instance, one hundred sixty faculty at the Australian Geelong school have been trained by

Seligman et al. in the concepts of positive psychology. Over the next twelve years, thousands of

students will bloom from the experience where teachers:

focus on identifying and utilizing personal strengths rather than the traditional focus on

student weaknesses. Other concepts such as end-of-day gratitude reflections help students

achieve a more positive attitude and develop resilience…. identified strategies… cultivate

positive emotion and positive character traits. Research by Dr. Seligman and others has

demonstrated that it is possible to be happier and more positive regardless of one’s

circumstances. (Lopper, 2009)

Currently, Seligman’s work at the grammar school attends to positive education theory into

6Suicide notes indicate family breakdown, pressure to succeed and bullying exacerbated by depression causes; social networking has reduced suicides for Finnish students and are being pursued (National Police Agency, 2009).


46

the curriculum. Approaches leading toward integration are organized from an administrative top-

down approach encouraging time to engage in particular lessons in positive education programs

or from a student and community centered approach work. Far from the approaches of Freire or

Dewey, the following excerpt outlines extracurricular activities. Noteworthy is the tacit elitism,

lack of reference to community work, and facility cost—out of reach of most countries. In this

example employing happiness in the curriculum is a work in progress by the wealthy.

The innovative $16M Handbury Centre for Wellbeing is a landmark building, a

physical foundation for the integration of Positive Education principles at Geelong Grammar

School. It combines everyday medical facilities alongside proactive approaches to good

health, such as online information for students about health and wellbeing issues, counselling,

yoga and Pilates.

Boasting a premium indoor activity facilities (including indoor courts, a pool,

gymnasium and dance studio) the Centre encourages our young people to engage in and enjoy

physical activity. It provides students with the opportunity to take control and have a positive

impact on their own wellbeing. The Centre is a special place where students can socialise,

exercise, train and seek out information or expert advice. Students and staff are drawn to its

friendly environment. Whether it’s swimming laps, talking to a counsellor, lifting weights,

socialising with peers in the cafe, finding time to meditate, or getting online to look up

information, the Handbury Centre for Wellbeing puts a range of comprehensive resources and

trained staff, within easy reach of every student. (Geelong, 2010)

Into practice

There is a marked difference in tenor between educating happy students to reify

oppressive systems where inequity is reproduced, and one where diversity and low power

differentials are honoured (Waite, 2007). VIF clearly markets happiness for extrinsic reasons

such as—achievement or a product—rather than for the inherent quality of happiness itself: “For

educators and school administrators, nurturing emotional intelligence among students holds out

hope for improved school readiness and educational achievement” (Tipper, 2009). Happiness is

still marginalized, commoditized and seen as untrustworthy pleasure, yet happiness can become

vulnerable if improperly instituted. “Introducing the concept of education at this point is fraught

with dangers, because it has become freighted with connotations of oppression and

indoctrination” (Banks, 1999, p.20). However, a “postmodern, multi-vocal conception of socially


47

constructed understanding prohibits any form of indoctrination or ‘banking’ education, in which

knowledge is ‘deposited’ in passive recipients. It recognizes the role of researchers as learners,

but also their obligation to share what they have learned.

Should a monetary value be placed on happiness? The concern that happiness could be

disguised, misused or appropriated for the benefit of a few is apparent. Happiness is often

misconceived as pleasure without a deeper societal purpose. There are tribal and indigent people

who live contented happy lives, their literacy is manifested in stories, survival skills, play, the

arts and traditional knowledge only recently recognized by science and medical communities.

These peoples would agree much of this paper is simple and common sense. However, there are

times when what is common knowledge become obscured, appropriated, forbidden, or outlawed

unless it is seen as economic profit. Happiness is intrinsic to social, ecological or cultural capital.

Part of the dynamic of happiness then involves political transparency through educational means.

There is a profound respect for diversity… powerful international stakeholders have become

fascinated with the mass media. Their fascination has included a preoccupation with the global

standardization of relations. Community Development has the potential to counterbalance the

negative effects of unitary-mass society because it appreciates the uniqueness and peculiarity

or the means that people find to solve their own problems. If we want people to be responsible

for their own lives… [they] must be prepared to celebrate uniqueness and support collective

action. (Banks, 1999, p.109)

Denigrating happiness as a commodity and a capital—or labouring to become happy

means to postpone happiness into a future event. This limits the conditions, opportunities, human

capabilities, quality of life, and threatens autonomy. Yet to fail to place any valuation on

happiness results in practices where happiness is trivialized and expropriated. According to

Stiglitz and Sen:

How societies are organized makes a difference to people’s lives, as can be seen in measures

of people’s heath and education; their daily work and leisure activities; citizens’ political voice

and the responsiveness of institutions; people’s social connections and their environmental

conditions; and the physical and economic insecurity that shapes their lives. The challenge in

these fields is to improve upon what has been achieved already…. (Stiglitz, 2009-09-19)

Policies that contribute to social inclusion concern life-course transitions such as: re-entry

into labour markets, divorce, retirement, and mobility loss. Canadians are interested in advancing


48

social networks that integrate eco-centric processes with sustainable community development.

Tuning into how groups interact and their ability to develop cohesive living conditions promotes

the health of community members (VIF, 2009). Developing regional cohesion and compassion

for the wellbeing of others is especially at stake during an economic crisis where even perceived

unemployment contributes to depression.

Of the thousands of surveys and interviews reporting various levels of happiness, from

positive psychology, behavioural economics, civics, physiology, SWB and DRM, little has been

analysed to understand how happiness as an intrinsic value is cultivated and encouraged within

pedagogy. Rather than using the GDP, the Gross National Happiness indicator (1972) was a

concept developed as a guide to understanding national sustainability by Bhutan's fourth King—

Jigme Singye Wangchuck using four pillars: sustainable development; preservation and

promotion of cultural values; conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good

governance. Citizen survey results are used to guide pedagogy in the community and the

classroom. As an subjective measure, GNH differs from SWB measures in that rather than

relying on a number, the measure of GNH in Bhutan is realized in achieving peaceful moments—

an indicator traditional Buddhist are encouraging to keep separate from external, quantitative, and

economic measures. This philosophy ensures happiness is kept as an internal presence. Today the

concepts are becoming deeply embedded into pedagogy and are being developed as part of

national policy, further to this countries are looking to Bhutan’s vision to create their own

wellbeing indicators importing their methods of sustaining cultural capital in their own regions.

This interview (2010) highlights how the dynamics of empowerment exist in student-teacher-

community relationships in Principle Dolma’s Changbangdu Primary School indicating:

It's not just classroom teaching that we impart values, but the way a teacher speaks to the

children, the way a teacher behaves with the children, so much so that even while we play

games, value is imparted. (Principal Dolma as quoted by S. Herman)

GNH Commission Secretary Tshiteem explains the progressive implications of GNH and how it

is reciprocally integrated in community and education

We have plans in the near future to make the GNH index and the 72 indicators and all the data

public to democratize the GNH process. When respondents to the survey see that their

participation in the survey actually influences policymaking, they will be more engaged in the

whole process and improve the quality of the index. Because GNH allows for people to voice


49

what matter to them and let that influence policymaking, it promotes democracy in a country

that just last year became a democracy. GNH is a democratic tool. Happiness still remains an

individual responsibility, but the State makes sure that the necessary conditions are there for

people to pursue the path they choose. Everything is a means to the end of having an open and

free society (Karma Tshiteem, as quoted by Braun, 2009, p34).

GNH remains a distinct, holistic and cultural expression of Buddhist principles in action

affecting national policy making. For example, by law, 70% of Bhutan’s forests are protected by

the government, making them a “net absorber rather than emitter of greenhouse gases,” and

regarding time use Bhutan encourages ideal time use in this fashion, “eight hours for work, eight

for sleep, and eight for leisure, it is illegal to work more than eight hours per day in Bhutan”

(Braun, 2009, p. 36). To date Western countries find measuring the effects of virtues is problematic as it is

“definitely impossible to answer the question in the same way as usually done with accounts or

social statistics” (Stiglitz, 2009-09-19). Beyond relying on standard metrics to gauge the effects

of happiness, currently educators like Nel Noddings and Parker Palmer place intrinsic worth on

happiness reflecting on how spiritual values act as a cultural capital when embedded directly into

pedagogy Both educators blur the lines between the pedagogy of community and school as

'schools should, as far as possible, use the sort of methods found in best homes to educate'

(Noddings 2002: 289). Influenced by Dewey, Palmer integrates values into the process of

education as a valuable way of engaging with students both in the community and in the

classroom. From Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach come six paradoxes useful as guiding

pedagogical principles:

The space should be bounded and open: ‘If boundaries remind us that our journey has a

destination, openness reminds us that there are many ways to reach that end’. The space

should be hospitable and “charged”: Learning spaces need to be hospitable – ‘inviting as well

as open, safe and trustworthy as well as free’. The space should invite the voice of the

individual and the voice of the group: People need to be able to express their thoughts and

feelings. This involves building environments both so that individuals can speak and where

groups can gather and give voice to their concerns and passions. The space should honour the

“little” stories of those involved and the “big” stories of the disciplines and tradition. And,

the space should support solitude and surround it with the resources of community: We need


50

conversations in which our ideas are tested and biases challenged ‘emerging from the deepest

part of ourselves, of others, of the world’. Finally, the space should welcome both silence and

speech: “We need to be able to put things into words so that we gain a greater understanding

and to make concrete what we may share in silence”. (Palmer, 1998 pp. 73 – 77)

Advocating, and developing the works of Freire, Ikeda, Csikszentmihalyi, and Makaguchi,

both Palmer and Noddings directly link purpose and connection between student, author, and

teacher with value centred education into informal and formal classrooms (Noddings, 2003).

Each exemplary educator embeds ecology, autonomy, and happiness—the underpinnings of

peace and health—directly into the daily practice of learning. Abiding to each community’s

awareness and historicity, they have developed grass roots praxis that can be transferred to other

regions, politics, and ecological settings. This is in contrast with Seligman’s enthusiastic

approach that seemingly purports to teach happiness as a separate subject. Although the focus to

combat depression through positive learning is commendable, it could become part of a

community’s holistic ethos engaging and involving community education as a sustainable

ecological practice.

Knowing one’s communities, having a sense of one’s role, and how to participate

meaningfully into the health and sustenance of that community are seemingly obvious cultural

capitals and attributes in creating meaningful human bonds. Frey’s research developing four

criteria of happiness (reliability, validity, consistency and comparability) may provide a more

accurate metric to compile date on happiness at various levels (Frey & Stutzer, 2002, p.33).

Understanding how these factors operate in concert, aspects embedded in pedagogy—or in

community—and their extant reciprocity/synergy will policy design where happiness is

acknowledged as a valued (spiritual) process, and dynamic capital.

Other than "happiness" there is no word that fully and accurately expresses the unhindered

pursuit of the cultural life that is the objective of education. From my own experience of the

past several decades and from pondering this question over that time, I have come to believe

this word gives the most realistic, straightforward and apt expression to the goal of life desired

and sought by all people. (Makiguchi, 1930)

Makaguchi joins a small but powerful international groundswell of policymakers shifting

from outcome based education to an expansive positive approach where community and

classroom activities are a measure of social wealth. The global implication happiness pushes the


51

boundaries of a public supporting mechanistic and consumer production—postmaterial society

needs are addressed including resource and social sustainability. Many nations are now moving

toward wellbeing indicators that go beyond GDP or HDI.

Happiness, according to Gyatso, is integral with compassion and peace.


52

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i Key Contributors: Dewey, Csíkszentmihályi, Freire, Giroux, Goleman, Inglehart, Kahneman, Noddings, Makiguchi, OISIE, Palmer, Seligman, Sens, and UNICEF. Key Words: Happiness, subjective wellbeing, behavioural economics, positive psychology, pedagogy, values, education, hope, and flow. ii The UN’s Child Policy developed and adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 31 as recently as 1989 where it describes values in that:

[E]very child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts. That member governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity (UNICEF, 2010).

The convention on the rights of the child is the most ratified treaty in the world—and is concerned about the basic standards in health care, education, protection, social services, the right to play, and to self-expression. iii The Nun Study (2008) indicated that Nuns who reported being happy and satisfied lived ten years longer compared with Nuns who were more critical or dissatisfied (Danner, 2008). The, Undo Effect Theory, suggests that positive emotions undo the negative effects of stress that may increase disease and reduce longevity (Fredrickson, 2001). iv “As an educator, a politician, and a man who constantly rethinks his educational praxis, I remain profoundly hopeful. I reject immobilization, apathy, and silence…. I am not merely hopeful out of capriciousness, but because hope is an imperative of human nature. It is not possible to live in plenitude without hope” (Freire, 1993). "Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students" (Freire, 1985, chapter 1). v Is it possible to weave the quality of wellbeing directly into pedagogy? According to leading theorist, yes! Transformational Brazilian leader, Paulo Freire, whose life work consists of creating the pedagogy of happiness through “laughter, of questioning, or curiosity, of seeing the future through the present, a pedagogy that believes in the possibility of the transformation of the world” (McLaren, 2007, p. 320). vi The"bare feet can also learn to read" campaign in the neighboring state of Rio Grande do Norte where Freire got his first chance to try out his method with three hundred sugarcane sharecroppers in the interior village of Angicos in 1963. When that experiment proved successful, he was invited by President Joao Belchior Goulart to implement a national literacy campaign. The program intended to make five million adults literate and politically progressive within the first year. According to the national law at the time, adults could only vote if they were functionally literate to some degree. For years this limiting of the Brazilian Electoral College had worked in favor of the hegemonic oligarchy. Now the landowners were threatened by the possibility that the peasants would organize into leagues, become literate and swell the ranks of the voters. The coup d'etat of March 31, 1964 deposed the Goulart government and imposed military rule, which lasted for over twenty years. Freire was arrested twice and imprisoned in Olinda and Recife for over two months before receiving political asylum in the Bolivian embassy in Rio” (http://www.paulofreireinstitute.org/PF-life_and_work_by_Peter.html).


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vii

Number of Deaths Cause of Death Frequency

39,290 1 Circulatory system diseases 1 death every 13 min.

30,481 2 Cancer 1 death every 17 min.

9,411 3 Respiratory system diseases 1 death every 56 min.

3,774 4 Digestive system diseases 1 death every 2 hrs.

2,923 5 Suicide all causes 1 death every 3 hrs.

2,376 6 Motor vehicle collisions 1 death every 4 hrs.

2,317 7 Substance abuse 1 death every 4 hrs.

1,932 8 Suicide, non-firearm 1 death every 5 hrs.

1,559 9 Mental Disorders 1 death every 6 hrs.

1,288 10 HIV 1 death every 7 hrs.

991 11 Suicide by Firearms 1 death every 9 hrs.

What is Killing Canadian Women?

Number of Deaths Cause of Death Frequency 36,921 1 Circulatory system diseases 1 death every 14 min. 25,167 2 Cancer 1 death every 21 min.

7,252 3 Respiratory system diseases 1 death every 72 min. 4,830 4 Breast cancer 1 death every 2 hrs. 3,450 5 Digestive system diseases 1 death every 3 hrs.

2,034 6 Mental disorders 1 death every 4 hrs. 1,153 7 Accidental falls 1 death every 8 hrs. 1,061 8 Motor vehicle collisions 1 death every 8 hrs.

844 9 Substance abuse 1 death every 10 hrs. 786 10 Suicide, all causes 1 death every 10 hrs. 727 11 Suicide, non-firearm 1 death every 11 hrs.

Causes of Death 1992 (Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology, Statistics Canada, Health Statistics Division, Sept. 1994); and, Method of Committing Homicide Offences, Canadian the Provinces/Territories, 1992 (Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1992 Suicide, non-firearm 1 death every 11 hrs. Causes of Death 1992 (Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology, Statistics Canada, Health Statistics Division, Sept. 1994); and, Method of Committing Homicide Offences, Canadian the Provinces/Territories, 1992 (Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology, Statistics Canada, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1992 viii


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SOKA Soka (Soka Gakkai International) actively promotes peace, culture and education based on a belief in positive human potential and respect for the dignity of life. SGI members work to foster a culture of peace, raising awareness and forging links at the grass-roots level. SGI is a firm supporter of the United Nations, with liaison offices in New York, Geneva and Vienna, and was granted consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN in 1983 and has been listed with UNHCR since 1997. It is active in public education with a focus on peace and disarmament, human rights and sustainable development as well as providing humanitarian assistance and promoting interfaith dialogue. SGI is also engaged in various NGO networks and partnerships at the local, national and international level. ix The High/Scope Perry Preschool Project The curriculum was originally called the Cognitive-Oriented Curriculum but is currently named the High/Scope Curriculum. It emphasizes an open approach to learning; children are active participants. There is a consistent daily routine within the classroom, which involves a plan–do–review sequence of learning activities. Everything within the Perry Preschool Program has a theoretical justification of how to work with children. Children are encouraged to engage in play activities that involve making choices and solving problems that contribute to their intellectual, social, and physical development. Nearly 40 years ago, Perry Preschool developed a high-quality educational approach focusing on 3- and 4-year-olds at risk for school failure. The longitudinal study has found that not only was the project effective as an educational intervention, it also demonstrated other positive outcomes, including a significantly lower rate of crime and delinquency and a lower incidence of teenage pregnancy and welfare dependency. By the age of 27, program participants were nearly three times as likely to own their own homes than the control group and less than half as likely to be receiving public assistance. x Taken from their websites: Video Volunteers, a NYC non-profit has created a sustainable global ‘community media network’, a kind of CNN or BBC for the one billion people living on less than two dollars a day. We envision an alternative media landscape in which tens of thousands of people around the world, living in slums and villages, are producing high quality video content that brings awareness to communities and empowers members to take action. This media is shown locally to accelerate change, while also being distributed through the mainstream media. The low cost of cameras and editing equipment, and the explosion of cable and internet distribution, have already made this technologically possible.

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