Please Worry, Get Happy

Should Your School Have a Happiness Course?

As K12 educators confront rising rates of anxiety and depression among students, particularly in high schools across America, many school stakeholders have questioned whether traditional academic curricula are sufficient to prepare students for life's challenges, or if something crucial is missing. More specifically, is there anything that can or should be done to help students be happier?

Is Portrait of a Graduate (POG) the Answer?

The Portrait of a Graduate model has peripherally touched upon this, but POG frameworks tend to focus on skills, mindsets, and attributes that schools believe students should possess upon graduation to be successful in further education, careers, and life.

While these competencies can certainly contribute to a person's overall well-being and life satisfaction, happiness itself is rarely named as a specific outcome. The closest concepts in most POG frameworks might be "well-being," "resilience," or "social-emotional skills."

This reflects a broader tendency in education to focus on measurable skills and competencies rather than subjective emotional states. However, as the mental health crisis continues and evidence mounts regarding the teachability of happiness-related skills, there could be a case for more explicitly incorporating well-being and happiness competencies into POG frameworks.

Are Kids Happier Post-Pandemic?

Before COVID-19, adolescent mental health was already trending downward. The Monitoring the Future survey showed declining life satisfaction among teens from 2012-2019, with approximately 12-13% of high school students reporting being "very unhappy" or "quite unhappy."

During the pandemic, studies documented sharp declines in adolescent well-being:

• A CDC study found that 37% of high school students reported poor mental health during the pandemic.

  
  

• Emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts increased by 51% among adolescent girls compared to pre-pandemic levels.

  
  

• Remote learning was associated with increased feelings of isolation, with one study finding 63% of students reporting increased feelings of loneliness.

Recent post-pandemic data suggests ongoing struggles rather than a return to pre-pandemic levels:

• The 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 42% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.

  
  

• Female students continue to report higher rates of poor mental health (57%) compared to male students (29%)

  
  

• LGBTQ+ students show particularly elevated rates of distress (69% reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness)

The evidence strongly suggests that today's K-12 students are experiencing lower overall happiness and higher rates of mental health challenges compared to pre-pandemic cohorts. This underscores the potential value of explicitly addressing happiness skills and mental well-being within educational frameworks.

An Interesting Angle from Book Publishers

Book Publishers have been trying to satisfy an increased demand for books focused on well-being, happiness, and finding meaning in life. This shift isn't merely a publishing trend but signifies a deeper societal need that has implications for our educational system. If the adults in the lives of our kids are searching for a happiness formula, what are the implications for those kids?

Without taking you into a detailed analysis of what book sales say about society, it’s interesting to note that what I will call the “happiness book market” appears to be comprised of four distinct segments:

• Science-based happiness books represent about 35% of the market.

  
  

• Spiritual/philosophical approaches to happiness account for approximately 28%.

  
  

• Practical happiness guidebooks make up roughly 25%.

  
  

• Personal narratives about finding happiness constitute the remaining 12%.

K12 educators in our public schools will likely find science-based happiness books to be most helpful in considering a happiness course for their students, and there are some notable authors working in this area worth noting.

Dr. Laurie Santos: Psychology and the Good Life

Santos’ Psychology and the Good Life became Yale's most popular course ever, with nearly 25% of Yale's undergraduate population enrolling. The course was designed to teach students science-based strategies for increasing happiness and building more productive habits. Santos has adapted this course into "The Science of Well-Being" - a free online version available on Coursera that has attracted over 3.5 million enrollments globally.

For schools interested in implementing happiness curriculum based on her work, Santos has advocated for these key components:

1. Teaching students about common misconceptions about happiness.

2. Helping students identify what truly makes them happy vs. what they think will make them happy.

3. Evidence-based practices like gratitude, social connection, mindfulness, and physical well-being.

4. Practical exercises that can be implemented in daily life.

Arthur C. Brooks: Evidence-based and Practical

Brooks regularly teaches at Harvard Business School and has developed teaching materials that could be adapted for younger students. While he hasn't created a K-12 specific curriculum, his emphasis on evidence-based approaches and practical application should appeal to K12 Educators.

He has written several books that could be valuable resources for K-12 educators developing happiness courses. Those books include:

• From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life"(Portfolio, 2022) A book that contains valuable insights about purpose and meaning that could be adapted for adolescents.

  
  

• Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt (Broadside Books, 2019) Offers practical strategies for building positive relationships across differences - highly relevant for school environments.

  
  

• Gross National Happiness (Basic Books, 2008) Perhaps most directly relevant to a happiness curriculum, this book explores what truly drives human satisfaction beyond material success.

Brooks’ Key Strategies for Happiness can have relevance to America’s students:

• The SEMA Framework (Success, Earned through service to others, with Meaningful relationships, and Abiding wisdom):

  • Helps students redefine success beyond grades and achievements.

  • Emphasizes service learning as a path to fulfillment.

• The Subtract, Don't Add strategy:

  • Teaches students to identify and eliminate unhappiness factors rather than constantly pursuing new sources of happiness.

  • Particularly effective for addressing digital overwhelm.

• The Happiness Portfolio: Encourages balanced investment across four domains: family, friends, faith (or meaning), and work.

  • Could be adapted for student contexts (family, friends, purpose, and academics).

  
  

• The Warm-Glow Strategy

  • Specific actions that generate positive emotions through helping others.

  • Research-backed classroom activities that combine learning with prosocial behavior.

What Would a School Happiness Course in Your District Look Like?

A well-designed happiness course wouldn't simply aim to make students temporarily cheerful. Rather, it would equip them with practical tools drawn from positive psychology, mindfulness practices, and current research. Course modules might include:

• The neuroscience of stress and evidence-based coping strategies.

• Relationship-building and social connection skills.

• Mindfulness and attention management.

• Purpose-finding and meaning-making.

• Healthy habits for physical and mental well-being.

Questions, Objections and Backlash

Schools considering happiness curricula will face legitimate questions from their stakeholders:

1. Where does it fit in an already-packed schedule?

2. Who teaches it?

3. How is success measured?

School districts should also anticipate some backlash from parents and community members. Their objections and concerns may fall into the following categories:

Ideological Objections

• Curricular priorities: "Schools should focus on academics, not feelings. We're already behind in math and reading."

• Parental domain: "Teaching values and emotional well-being is the family's responsibility, not the schools."

• Religious concerns: Some parents may view happiness course as conflicting with their religious beliefs about purpose, suffering, or the source of true happiness.

Implementation Concerns

• Resource allocation: "This takes away time and funding from core subjects and existing programs."

• Teacher qualifications: "Are our teachers qualified to address mental health topics? Could well-intentioned efforts backfire?"

• Measurement skepticism: "How will success be measured? Is this just another educational fad?"

  
  

Content-Specific Pushback

• Political framing: Some might view happiness curricula as ideologically motivated, especially if it includes concepts like mindfulness (perceived as religious) or social justice (perceived as political).

• Stigmatization fears: Concerns that courses might inadvertently stigmatize students with depression or clinical mental health issues.

• Scientific legitimacy: Questions about whether happiness can actually be taught effectively.

Overcoming the Objections

You can expect the nature and intensity of community backlash to vary by district, with some stakeholders being more receptive than others to school-based well-being initiatives. To mitigate potential resistance, districts might:

• Frame courses in terms of evidence-based skills rather than emotional states.

• Emphasize connections to academic success and future career readiness.

• Engage diverse stakeholders in curriculum development.

• Offer opt-out provisions for families with strong objections.

• Collect data to demonstrate effectiveness.

Schools may find that integrating happiness content into advisory periods or health classes, may be more achievable than creating a standalone course. Teacher training is a critical factor as well. Finally, measuring outcomes beyond self-reported happiness–including attendance, academic performance, and disciplinary incidents–must be considered.

Well, Is It Time to Get Happy?

Maybe the question becomes less whether schools should create a happiness course, and more on how these happiness principles and strategies can be integrated into the existing curriculum. Either way, and sadly, this is not an easy lift, especially given the massive challenges facing school districts today.

That said, shouldn't our school communities, composed of all stakeholders, want to help students acquire academic knowledge along with the skills needed for lifelong well-being, including happiness. Shouldn’t “happiness” be a priority?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

How Can Grandview Help

Our formula for happiness includes stakeholder engagement. Doing this effectively requires more than good intentions—it requires a structured strategy, expertise, and ongoing effort. Many districts simply don’t have the time, staff, or resources to manage stakeholder engagement at the level required for real impact. That’s where we come in.

Our team specializes in helping school districts develop and implement comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategies that go beyond traditional parent outreach. We provide the tools, frameworks, and guidance necessary to ensure your district is consistently building strong relationships with the broader community. From designing engagement plans to facilitating strategic partnerships, we can help transform your district’s approach to community involvement—ultimately driving stronger schools and more informed, supportive communities.

Now is the time to break free from the school building mindset. If your district is ready to elevate its community engagement efforts, let’s start the conversation. The success of your schools—and your students—depends on it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Brake is the founder and CEO of The Grandview Group, a consulting firm that helps organizations engage their stakeholders and elevate impact. We would love to talk with you about how your organization is engaging stakeholders and elevating impact.

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