This J-Term marked our fourth year of special programming with our high school students. During the first two weeks back following our winter break, we have taken up a theme through various lenses and worked with it in class groups that transcend the usual grade divisions. In past years we have taken up topics such as Civil Rights, Migration, and Carbon, and this year we selected the theme of Happiness. We did not know when planning this course that our community would have an intense experience of grief just before our break, but we were aware that our young people are struggling with anxiety and depression and that the world at large seeks clarity on where value lies. During the course of our nine days together, our students had three intense seminars, taught by Ms. Kenyon, Mr. Berger, and Ms. Almquist, and then some additional experiences, guest lectures, and discussions. It was a valuable experience for both the instructors and the students, and we left the block with a mood of gratitude.
The goal of this J-Term was to explore an idea that we invoke constantly, Happiness, as if we know what we are saying and what we mean, and as if we know what others are saying and what they mean. It became apparent immediately that we do not. Even though most students could confidently label particular experiences as "happy," such as playing basketball or reading a great book or eating an ice cream cone on a hot day, there was clearly more to consider, and it felt worthwhile to devote some time to just that. Bertrand Russell said that the key to happiness is to "let your interests be as wide as possible and to let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be, as far as possible, friendly rather than hostile.” This was precisely the attitude expressed by the students throughout the J-Term.
Ms. Kenyon took the students on a more philosophic exploration of Happiness. Every person wants to live well, even if they are unsure what that entails. What makes our lives good? Is it possible to be truly happy if we are not good people? To what degree does our happiness depend upon the happiness of others . . . if at all .. . and vice versa? Is happiness a category, a byproduct, a goal, a prize? Is happiness the most important thing in life? If so, is that selfish? If not, what is more important? Can I be wrong about what makes me happy? What is the relationship between happiness and goodness? Is happiness something you get or a state of being? What does happiness have to do with the meaning of life? These questions and many more emerged as we looked at happiness philosophically, systematically, critically, as a topic right up there with existence, freedom, knowledge, having a mind, and how to live. With Ms. Kenyon, students considered most closely some answers to these questions suggested by Aristotle, Epictetus, and Epicurus, but made wide-ranging connections to a host of other philosophers and traditions, including Socrates, Plato, al Ghazali, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The students took the investigation home and interviewed family, friends, and neighbors about happiness, discovering both variety and similarities when they shared the results. Engaging Erich Fromm’s insights into the fundamental difference between having and being, they observed their own use of language and experimented with the effects of transforming some have-statements into being-statements. Finally, we briefly dipped into the science of happiness and the practice of gratitude.
With Ms. Almquist, students did a deep dive into the novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Through this story of a young person’s search for nirvana in Ancient Nepal we were able to explore themes in Buddhism such as finding the Middle Way, embracing the present and letting go of attachment. Students also worked on creating mandalas while listening to excerpts of the book, and we learned a little about the history and function of mandalas in religious practice through a lecture and slide show by Linda Park.
Another approach to the theme came from Mr. Berger’s examination of advertising, an industry that spends $600 billion every year promising to increase your store of “Happiness.” Mr. Berger led the high schoolers through a history of modern Advertising. They learned about the dozens of techniques used to persuade us to choose one product over another, or convince us that we want something, and that having it will make us happier. They deconstructed print ads, television commercials, and social media memes, dove into a case study of the marketing of nicotine from 1900 to the present, and then split into “ad teams” to devise a campaign for one of three fictional products assigned to them. The question they returned to repeatedly: Where do my thoughts and desires actually come from?
Guest Speaker Alex Harvey spoke to the students in his capacity as a “death doula,” expounding on his studies into grief—the traditional relationship humans had to the grieving process, what we have lost in adopting “modern/Western” attitudes toward grief and death, and the distinction between “depression” (an inactive mode) and “grieving” (a crucial, active process). A dynamic speaker, Alex regaled the students with both scientific studies and anecdotes from his own life and losses to suggest how happiness may not be able to exist but as a point on a “sine wave” that contains other indispensable, very-human states.
As a supplement to the more intellectual nature of our class discussion, Ms. Haley brought the students a more immediate introductory experience of various styles of meditation. Each class held an opportunity for students to discover skills and insights of the benefits for developing a mindfulness practice. As a follow up to this, Mr. Metreaud brought an outdoor meditation component by having students walk out into the forest and find a location to sit alone for 15-20 minutes. During this time, the students were invited to meditate by focusing their attention on an object they found in their immediate surroundings. They were asked to notice if their focus wandered from the object and to observe what it wandered to and then bring their focus back to their object. After this time had passed, a bell was rung and the students were asked to write a Haiku about their object. It was impressive how well the students engaged in their forest medication despite the honest winter weather we are having. Finally, we allowed students to pick a short elective and have a session where they engaged in cooking, playing games, or delving further into nature meditation or inside meditation.
We encourage you to talk to your high school students about this topic or to find your own entry into experiences that make you Happy.
~ Ms. Almquist, Mr. Berger, and Ms. Kenyon
