HAPPINESS AS AN AIM OF EDUCATION

One of my favourite moral philosophers and educationalist is Nel Noddings (1929-) who has significantly contributed to the subject of education, philosophy of education and ethics of care. Currently, I am reading her excellent book Happiness and Education and would like to highlight and discuss some of her valuable ideas and proposals concerning education.
In her book one of the parts is dedicated to exploration of happiness as an aim of life and education. Noddings highlights that every person in the world wants to be happy and how it is surprising that educational institutions do not pay more attention on how to contribute to happiness of students.

Throughout human history many philosophers have been thinking about how to be happy and how to live a happy life. For example, Aristotle considered happiness as something that can be achieved not directly, but through living an intellectual and contemplative life and through practicing intellectual and moral virtues. John Stuart Mill, a well-known British philosopher, has developed an utilitarian approach to happiness. He argued that ethical theory has to promote decisions and actions which enable the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. For him, happiness is the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain and suffering. When he thinks of pleasure, Mill distinguishes the pleasures of a fool who is entirely occupied with bodily pleasures and the pleasures which arise from intellectual work, from art, literature, imagination, moral sentiments, etc. Another prominent Scottish philosopher, David Hume, claimed that for a happy life it is necessary to develop a pleasant personality, good manners, modesty and other social virtues. All of these contribute to social life and cultivation of friendships, which Hume regarded to be an important factor for a happy and fulfilling life.

When asked how educational environments lead to happiness, we get more and more impression that schools, and particularly higher education, educate young people to become skilled workers. Skilled workforce should be able to earn more money on the job market and consequently, they should become more satisfied. But is this really one of the fundamental purposes of education? There is no doubt that education should advance personal and national profit, but that cannot be the leading paradigm of education. The primary role of education is to make a person a better human being. To put it in Noddings words:

Education, by its very nature, should help people to develop their best selves – to become people with pleasing talents, useful and satisfying occupations, self-understanding, sound character, a host of appreciations, and a commitment to continuous learning.

Every parent wants that his or her child become not only a good human being, but also a happy person. Ultimately, everybody is longing to be happy. For this reason Noddings claims that: "A large part of our obligation as educators is to help students understand the wonders and complexities of happiness, to raise questions about it, and to explore promising possibilities responsibly."

How can education lead to happiness?

Noddings argues that education in Western liberal democracies highlights and promotes the development of competences, skills and abilities that will enable a person to have higher financial income. Although Noddings asserts that education should contribute to both personal and national economic development, Noddings also points out that a higher income does not make a person happy. Certainly, it is hard for a person who is in great poverty to claim to be happy. However, after having met all the vital necessities for a dignified life, it is difficult to expect that more money will provide a person with a sense of inner happiness and fulfillment. Some of the factors which contribute the most to the happiness of a person is a happy home and family. Noddings believes that students should learn what does it mean to make a home and what does it mean to have a home? Namely, having a home is one of the most basic sources of inner fulfillment and happiness. According to her, this topic deserves to be seriously studied. Having a home and how to make a happy home is existential for every person and necessary for the healthy and happy functioning of society.

Moreover, Noddings writes how most of the students will become parents and that it would be useful to explore various parenting styles and analyze which are the most successful. It is interesting to note that Noddings who previously taught math in high school, is convinced that most of the students do not need to learn algebra since most of them will not need it in life. However, majority of the students will become parents and will make homes. For this reason, education should not neglect questions and issues which are existential for majority of population and are basic sources of one’s happiness. As she notes,

Why do we insist on teaching all children algebra and teach them almost nothing about what it means to make a home? If one’s answer to this is that making a home is properly learned at home, how do we provide for those children who do not learn this at home? Moreover, all of us still have much to learn about this task that is so central to our lives and happiness.

Besides making a home and parenting, Noddings claims that other topics are also important as sources of inner fulfilment and happiness, such as place and nature, character and spirituality and interpersonal growth. These are rich topics, but our educational institutions unfortunately pay little attention to them. In addition to education for public life, Noddings argues that education should include in curriculum themes that are vital for one’s personal life and for one's happiness. Certain changes and reforms should be done concerning what students learn in schools. The goal should be to form students as whole and integral human beings, and not only produce workforce that is able to produce and maximise profit.