Abstract
In this chapter the author connects the suggested failure of Gross Domestic Product as a measure of a nation’s success with the failure of exam league tables to produce an education that fully serves the needs of all children. He argues that recent work into human flourishing has made it possible to re-think the fundamental aim of education and guide its practice more clearly and suggests, drawing on the work of John White, that the central aim of education must be the well-being of all those who are involved in it. The author then presents a 6-stranded model, based on his own experiences at Wellington College U.K., which could enable schools to develop a philosophy and practice of well-being that underpins everything they do and better bring about the flourishing of students and staff alike.
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Notes
- 1.
See for example the New Economics Foundation’s “Five Ways to Well-being”, which directly references learning http://neweconomics.org/projects/five-ways-well-being, or Seligman’s PERMA model (Positive emotions, Engagement (or flow), Relationship/social connections, Meaning (and purpose), Accomplishment; Seligman 2011), which could be argued to subsume learning in engagement and accomplishment.
- 2.
The explicit requirement to find evidence of the promotion of pupil well-being was removed from the U.K. schools inspection framework in January 2012. The new framework focuses on pupil achievement, quality of teaching, and school leadership and pupils’ behavior and safety http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201212/cmhansrd/cm120123/text/120123w0001.htm.
- 3.
In proposed changes to the schools inspection framework in 2010, the Secretary of State for education, Michael Gove announced that schools would no longer be rated on what he termed “peripheral issues”, widely thought to be pupil well-being and community cohesion (Harrison 2010).
- 4.
Nick Gibb, U.K. schools minister, quoted in Schools strive for pupils’ happiness (Northen 2012), http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/16/children-wellbeing-schools-ofsted?INTCMP=SRCH.
- 5.
For a discussion of Skinnerian behaviorism, see Kohn (1999), pp. 6–11.
- 6.
The full curriculum can be accessed for free at: http://intranet.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/well-being.
- 7.
For fuller explanation, see Goleman (2004), p. 80.
- 8.
Further information see: http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/restorative_justice_works.
- 9.
One such example is Adbusters’ “Media Empowerment Kit”, see: http://www.adbusters.org/cultureshop/mediakit.
- 10.
See further http://www.ibo.org/myp/.
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Morris, I. (2013). A Place for Well-Being in the Classroom?. In: Proctor, C., Linley, P. (eds) Research, Applications, and Interventions for Children and Adolescents. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6398-2_11
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