Can happiness restore the purpose of higher education?
S P Jain Global School of Management demonstrates a strong connection between accomplishments and emotional well-being
During his childhood, famed Beatles’ member John Lennon’s mother told him that the point of life is happiness. When he started school, Lennon was given an assignment to write an essay describing the point of life. He simply wrote, ‘to be happy’. His teacher wrote back, ‘you did not understand the assignment’, to which he wrote, ‘you don’t understand life’.
A study of the well-being of midlife parents suggests that our job in higher education is as equally important as assisting parents achieve the well-being of their children. The study finds that parents rank education and happiness as their top hopes and aspirations for their children. Parents sense a sigh of relief when their children receive a good college education. The closer parents see themselves to achieving these hopes and aspirations, the higher is their own psychological well-being. But what happens when one of those aspirations comes at the expense of the other — where getting a good education comes at the expense of happiness?
As humans, we continue to want more due to our insatiable urge, and happiness is often a reflection of getting something better. We want more of something different, because the happiness we have is no longer enough, and our expectations and standards have increased.
Many researchers, including me, believe that universities globally have done the very same thing, leaving behind the heart and soul of a liberal arts education that once focused on the whole person, the well-rounded student, and the whole faculty and staff. Universities now have the resources to promote the best possible life without much meaning in life for students. So, does higher education today help students to flourish with a good outlook on life where one is able to function well? Research findings provide a different picture.
We wonder, isn’t this the point of a liberal arts education? What is stopping us from reclaiming it as the highest aspiration of “higher” education? I believe that what stops us from appreciating higher education is that institutions today have lost sight of the point of life. They are churning graduates without much purpose in life.
Sad to say, most higher education providers today have failed to understand life. They are not helping education seekers achieve hopes and aspirations. Students want education with a purpose in life, and not receiving that educatation is at the expense of their happiness.
As humans, we continue to want more due to our insatiable urge, and happiness is often a reflection of getting something better. We want more of something different, because the happiness we have is no longer enough, and our expectations and standards have increased.