Happiness as the aims of education....

Ram Chandra Dahal

Happiness as the aims of education

Wikipedia defines happiness as a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

I wonder if there is anyone in this universe who doesn’t want happiness in life?

I am 100 % sure that anyone would argue saying that happiness is not important at any part of their life. Everyone wants happiness and every living being wants to be happy forever. It is a mere fact that happiness is more important than anything, even wealth, which I personally feel is true. To support this I will narrate a short story here, which goes like this:

Once a man gave a beggar $ 100 dollars. The beggar could not believe what he got and went away as he looked very nervous. The very next day the beggar returned to the man’s house to return the money, which he gave the previous day. Although the man was very surprised he asked the beggar, why he didn’t want that money, as it was a huge sum for beggars. The beggar replied before he didn’t have anything and he was very happy but once he got that money he could not sleep for the whole night as he was thinking and thinking. He added further that, his greed grew as his desires were unlimited and could not decide what he should do. So he said he don’t want such trouble in life. He just wanted to be happy which he was before and now he was not as he was tensed and could not sleep well too. The man had no answer as the beggar left after returning $100 dollars to the him.

The story above is a metaphor, which I have used because I have seen so many people who are rich but yet they are not able to be happy. This is the reason why I say happiness is more important then wealth; after all there is nothing that we can take once we die, so living your life without being happy is as good as being dead.

Now the biggest question that arises is that, what is it that makes a person happy? If wealth can’t make you happy, what could be the answer for this question? Is it something that can be taught in schools or colleges? If so it can be taught in schools what should be the aims of education?

So in this paper I would elaborate on “Happiness as the aims of education”.

 I strongly believe that the aim of education should be happiness because, happiness is something, which matters the most in life. If we can’t teach our students to be happy in life, there are no reasons that I see in teaching them formulas and theories. I don’t see any meanings in making our children doctors, engineers or scientists if they don’t learn to be happy and know the values of happiness.
Therefore the first and primary aims of education should be HAPPINESS, Which I would justify below.

Aristotle stated that “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence” (Kesebir & Diener, 2008, p. 69).

It is very interesting to see that even some thousand years ago happiness was given such prime importance because visionary people like Aristotle knew that happiness is something completes one’s life and without it life is not worth living. I am extremely happy to see Bhutan has realized this concept and have been trying hard to implement happiness in every aspect. Our visionary leader, His Majesty the Fourth King of Bhutan has clearly said that “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product”, which gives us hope as well as strength to infuse happiness in every step we take. I am more excited to see that happiness has also been implemented as a part of curriculum in schools across Bhutan.

According to Karma Drukpa and Ken Brien, in their research article, Educating for Gross National Happiness: A New Paradigm for Education in Bhutan writes: Educating for Gross National Happiness was a nation wide initiative launched by the Ministry of Education in 2009. According to Hayward and Colman, this initiative brought two changes in the Bhutanese Education system, the first being the curriculum, where the GNH principles and values were made as the part of the school curriculum. It focuses on critical and creative thinking, ecological literacy, holistic understanding of the world, preserving and practicing ancient wisdom, culture and tradition and preparing to deal effectively with the modern world.

In schools teachers are asked to infuse GNH while teaching. For example, when a teacher teach about water, he or she should also remind student’s how important is it for us to use water effectively, keep water sources clean and also if possible make them participate in cleaning campaigns which would make students, responsible and happy. Responsible because they are helping to keep the community clean and they feel happy because they know they did something to their country and at the same time they have learned about water i.e, its formula, properties etc. This is where satisfaction as well as learning happens.

The second change for educating for GNH was adoption of green school for green Bhutan.  This is based on a book written by the former Education Minister, Lyonpo Thakur S powdyel. Green schools were created to nurture and shape a child’s development in the school system through eight greenery dimensions: environmental, intellectual, academic, social, cultural, spiritual, aesthetic, and moral (Bhutan Ministry of Education, 2012).

The eight dimensions teach our students values, responsibilities, tradition and many other aspects, which is so important in today’s world. I don’t want my children’s to be Internet worms, which we see in almost all foreign countries. They have just ignored family values and so many other beautiful proponents of life, which is so important. Who is to be blamed for this? I do to the education system, which has failed to teach social, emotional and spiritual values. They have just looked at developing their intellectual capacity by neglecting the rest, which has created such misbalance in the society.

Looking at this scene Bhutan has been trying to include happiness as strong pillar of education and I strongly feel it a wise step taken forward in nurturing the nation’s future. We don’t want highly intelligent but irresponsible citizens. Our sense of belonging, brotherhood and love has been our daily principle for centuries and we must take forward the same values and it must go on an on. 

I do agree that some countries have been leading technocrats and have invented sophisticated instruments. But at end of the day, many of these countries land up using such resources in wrong areas. So what is the point in wasting so much energy and resources if we were to create disparities, harm and to hurt others? Let us live and let live.

Makiguchi, a Japanese philosopher believed the lifelong happiness of learners to be the authentic goal of education; he structured his educational philosophy and efforts toward developing the value-creating potentialities of students. He strongly felt education based on awareness of the connections between human life, natural and the social environment could help students develop moral characters and knew that educated people on such ground would know to built interdependent and much harmonious life which is more meaningful.

I strongly agree to Makiguchi’s concept and vision for education. Let us have values in what we learn and not just earn a certificate that has no values in humanitarian ground. We all need each other, the world needs to be nurtured and we can only do if all of us set a common goal. Bhutan trying to practice Gross National Happiness and United States of American, Iran or North Korea testing nuclear weapons to empower them will never create unity. The mother earth may not hold so much pressure and we must also keep in mind that if the nature wills, it can change the course of its history and let us not challenge it as we know we are the only one who would lose.

Therefore let us not create such disparities among ourselves. Whether we live in Canada, New Zealand or Bhutan we are classified under same Genus: Homo and Species: Sapiens. Thus we must share common goal, which is Happiness. And if we are to change our diverse notion, the possibility is only through education. Education is the most powerful tool to carve any thought process. It can be so dynamic if guided in a right channel or destructive if misguided. The example of misguided education that lead to so painful and disturbing reality is the recent attack of a military school in Pakistan, where 126 people were killed of which 124 were very fragile innocent students. What did the suicide bombers gained after all? They lost their own such precious lives along with so many innocent victims.

However one thing is true to the above statement. Education can be such powerful tool. It can be constructive as well as destructive. Therefore let us use this tool to built homes and happiness, not destroy them. Let peace be our principles of our life, emotions our actions, kindness our hospitality and happiness our prayer.   Last but not the least, if we are to achieve all these, “HAPPINESS SHOULD BE THE AIM OF EDUCATION”.

 

Works Cited

Brien, K. D. (2013). Happiness as aims of education.

Joffee, A. G. (n.d.). Value Creation as the Aim of Education: Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Soka Education.

KumagaiKumagai. (1978). Makiguchi Tsunesaburo.

powdyel, T. S. (2012). My Greeen Schools.