Happiness in Education- Blog 2

            Education in many instances is the foregrounds to success. From one society to the next, the degree of one’s success is based on a financial status. But in reality, a wealthy person’s happiness is not more real or significant than that of a person in a lower income bracket. This biased perception of the essence of happiness leads us to embark quests for financial standing as opposed to happiness itself. The chapter; Happiness in Education explains the emotional aspects of one’s education.

            The drowning model, love-making model and the state of flow are attempts to explicate the correlation between school, learning and happiness. All three explications relate to each other. The drowning model states that one will complete a task, while disliking the process to obtain an ultimate satisfaction or happiness from not having to sustain the “painful” course of completion. The love-making model in contrast to the drowning model, states that one will find satisfaction in an entire process and in the end result. For example, instead of dreading study time after school and hoping to obtain a passing grade, the love making model in theory says that you enjoy each step leading up to a climax and ultimately find yourself in a rewarding experience. A state of flow suggests that we reach a “trance” where nothing gets in the way of the completion of a task. It is a state in which our complete, undivided attention is devoted to something where we find happiness in. In this state of being, we find ourselves challenged just enough and possess the right amount of knowledge to not feel overwhelmed by the challenge intensity.

            So in establishing better educational institutions, what is it that our infrastructure is in need of? There is no right or wrong answer to this matter being that each student finds pleasure in different activities. Although, there are things to be done that will universally help improve the effectiveness of classroom lessons. The youth may be more attracted to a learning environment that provides them with fun activities. A student may find himself/ herself at boredom when simply adding, dividing and deriving equations. A more interactive approach for the equivalent course material would be solving word problems or equating math problems with real-life situations. Furthermore, a more interesting form of learning for the youth may be activities that provide the freedom to interact with others. Being that the traditional form of learning in the typical classroom voids students from social interaction, a more interactive learning environment between students and teachers and amongst students themselves will help prevent students from falling into a state of seclusion. In addition, people have tendencies to pay closer attention to things they find fun and interesting, therefore creating games that teach lessons will attract students to class material.

            In supporting the drowning model, teachers may provide more assistance to students and encourage questions in class. Being that people are afraid of criticism, they avoid asking questions and being judged for a “lack” of knowledge. This presumption of being judged carries throughout life and ultimately builds on the things we lack knowing and are afraid of asking the answers to. By encouraging questions, the educator builds on the confidence of the student body. In addition to building on self confidence, eliminating the fear of asking questions reduces the student’s anxiety from not knowing the course material and therefore needing to study harder for the same understanding.

            Furthermore, a grand majority of the student body finds itself in frustration upon doing homework. The youth may fail to see the purpose of homework assignments being to further develop your understanding of the subject matter. It is for this reason that “having a clear destination in mind liberates us to enjoy the journey”. If a child entering school understood this concept, perhaps he/ she would build goals and understand the process required to reach the end result. Therefore, if scholars don’t understand the purpose for homework, they wont enjoy the “journey”. Homework then becomes an aspect of class that many may agree to disrupt a perception towards school. Homework to many students will bring them to the drowning model, where they complete it while disliking each step. On a sunny spring day, a kindergarten student will much prefer going to a playground and play with friends than he would like to stay home and learn the letters of the alphabet. A possibility to this conflicting issue in education may perhaps be to extend school days to fit more study time and thus reduce the work load left for home. A young mind, if focused on something he/ she finds interesting may fail to notice the lapse of time during which they’ve been kept extra; proving the state of flow.

            Ultimately, the sole responsibility of education lies on the scholar itself. Being happy or not while being educated is dependent upon multiple factors of which include the student, the educator and the environment. If all other variables are held constant and the educator and environment improved, the remaining factor becomes the student. A measure of happiness is often associated with the degree of wealth one lives in. Although, in our current society, wealth, or happiness, is often times not obtainable without a formal education. Therefore, we must seek the improvement of our educational infrastructure and assist the youth in developing healthier and happier study habits for their future benefit and that of society as a whole.