EDUCATION
The School committed to emotional intelligence
Founded in London in 2008 by philosopher Alain de Botton and art curator and educator Sophie Howarth, The School of Life is a worldwide operation committed to supporting the development of emotional intelligence.
Drawing from philosophy, psychology and literature, the School has a range of books and games, and delivers workshops such as How to Realise Your Potential, How to Find Fulfilling Work and How to Find the Right Partner.
With branches in Melbourne and Sydney, the Australian faculty is about to stage a pop-up in Hobart, and there’s a lot of excitement around the forthcoming weekend event.
“For many people in Australia – and around the world, actually – Tasmania feels like a very special and fascinating place,” says the School’s philosopher-in-chief and former academic John Armstrong, who also happens to live at South Hobart. “It might be to do with the climate or the visual character of the place, but a lot of people rightly associate Tasmania with having interesting conversations. It’s a very encouraging environment, and the School very much wants to engage with the spirit of Hobart.”
While local engagement is important, Armstrong says the School has an outward focus, with the material remaining the same, regardless of location.
“It’s about taking ideas from very specialised communities out into the everyday world,” he says. “We’re encouraging people to find out how something such as history, for example, helps them to live their lives, and to ask themselves if they’re learning things that are important to them. In that sense, we’re very different to academia.
“We learn lots of things at school, but by the time we’re adults we realise we haven’t learnt how to be a good parent, how to work out what to do with our careers, or deal with areas of practical worry and conflict with friends, finances and relationships. We look at such challenges and help people get better at dealing with them.”
Melbourne faculty member Sarah Darmody, who taught the first Australian class four years ago and will be in Hobart for the pop-up, believes the School’s strength lies in building community through engendering conversation.
“One of the most surprising things we’ve learnt since our first class was how trapped people can feel by repetitive, stultifying conversations with their friends and family, and how much they yearn to have deeper, better, more intriguing conversations,” she says. “We want to help people become more truthful and more authentic with each other, and to open up about their experiences.”
The School of Life will be in Hobart from Friday, October 6, to Sunday, October 8, at The Commons, 126 Bathurst St. Tickets are by ballot from theschooloflife.com/melbourne/tasmania-pop-up