The Huffington Post – Vicki Zakrzewski, Ph.D. & Peter Brunn, M.A.
“Student success today is defined by getting a job. The Common Core State Standards aim to make students career-ready — and the U.S. Department of Education’s mission is to prepare students for global competitiveness. But does that brand of success lead to happiness? Several studies have found that childhood emotional health and kind, helpful behavior — two major factors that contribute to our happiness –are the greatest predictors of life satisfaction in adulthood. The least important predictor? Academic success…So rather than making it an either/or situation — either job skills or happiness and meaning –what if we taught students both?…Yet how exactly does learning to cultivate a happy and meaningful life fit into education? And even more importantly, how do we teach it?…educators who include social-emotional learning (SEL) and mindfulness in their classrooms are subversively cultivating their students’ happiness and sense of meaning by fostering their emotional health and prosocial skills.”(more)