Abstract
The human desire is to understand the meaning of life and achieve their purpose. However, the quality of an individual’s life determines the values of everyone and how they understand their personal life. This paper seeks to argue the varying approaches towards the achievement of happiness and true life meaning. Though happiness is a form of enhancing success and meaning, educational institutions should not force students to learn it. This idea is based on the fact that happiness is a choice and free will, as outlined by Viktor Frankl in the book, “Man’s search for meaning.” It is contrasted to the actual perspective of designing a school curriculum that incorporates happiness as a major subject. The modern design school is described by Adele Peter in the article, “This school focuses on teaching students happiness, not math.
Introduction
A rather new approach to happiness is the opportunity to make capital gains from coaching students to gain happiness. Peter’s article describes the idea of cultivating character and personality into people through the school system as a new approach. She outlines the basic mission of the founders of the school as enhancing emotional intelligence and the broad spectrum of happiness. In this case, entrepreneurs express their goal of enhancing community, personal life, and productive students through designing curricular featuring happiness.
Human existence is capitalized by their desire to find meaning in life. The identifiable theme in Frankl’s “Man’s search for meaning” is that humans have to pursue happiness as a choice and not forced predicament. The journey is rather cumbersome and challenging, but a noble man will endure when driven by the aspiration to discover oneself. He discovered that he had to change himself to persevere in challenging situations. Life in the Nazi camps was challenging, and Frank was driven by the desire to achieve success and overcome the challenges. His course illustrates how the meaning of one’s life can influence them to achieve success. In a more compelling approach, it is definable that happiness is a choice and an ingredient to overcoming suffering.
Path to meaning
Frankl (82), outlined that people are uncertain concerning their decisions. In this case, they are vulnerable to irritability in the mental state, clarifying that they need assistance to persevere life (Nilsson, 162). The vulnerability is an opportunity identified by Vivek Reddy, who confounded a new school curriculum system. The effectiveness of the school techniques and approach is to give life its meaning. They seek to ensure the learners have discovered their true self and discovery. However, the experiment is critical since it contradicts the traditional school system and human free will.
The school system will comprise various free choices that will encourage children, such as choosing the subjects. The end goal of the project is to instill happiness through a holistic approach instead of limited knowledge. However, the process does not include self-discovery aspects whereby the student peruses the life challenges on their own. In contrast, Frankl (83) acclaims that concept of triggering a conscious mind towards inner value is spiritual welfare rather than physical approach (Howell et al., 1986). Therefore, it is futile to formulate a school system that will coordinate students to identify their value. More so, owing to the fact that the designed curriculum lacks challenging experiences that will compel individuals to make discoveries.
Humans usually struggle with apathy to feed the curiosity of existence and its meaning. In the concept of establishing easier criteria to life’s meaning, Frankl argues that people are susceptible to frustrations. It is easier to create an existential vacuum in pursuit of helping other people. In this case, it is evident that Frankl could oppose the idea of establishing a school to teach happiness rather than general knowledge. It is more compelling when a person lets fate to define their search for real life’s meaning. The system is likely to create a lack of meaning rather than building on purpose. The approach can easily result in categorizing happiness as a component of success rather than success as a result of happiness. In this case, students are triggered to pursue success in their daily activities to acquire happiness.
Nevertheless, a system that motivates the students to create their unique and singular life task is poised for success. Paradoxically, an individual is mandated to freedom of making choices and not the desire to have freedom from (Frankl, 16). In this case, a person can pursue their heart desires diligently and seek to explain various surroundings. However, the theme is rather difficult to design in a school setting (Costello, 16). As Frankl illustrates, a motivating factor should have the variables of suffering, depression, and sadness. An individual withdraws from hedonistic pleasures only when an individual identifies understatement in life. In this case, a school setting is more likely to distract people from the pursuit of life’s meaning.
The idea of happiness and emotional intelligence
The school founders are diverse in terms of their definition of happiness. The approach to a broader spectrum is likely to leave out the main themes that cause happiness. A more significant percentage of the pie is vested in the emotional intelligence concept, which introduces an array of knowledge to the students. Frankl depicts that the needs of a person are predetermining the emotional state. In this case, the satisfaction of one’s need is a critical factor in enhancing happiness (Park et al., 10). More so, the mental state of happiness is void of the tensions of struggle. Therefore, happiness occurs naturally and is not a phenomenon to pursue intentionally. Rather is achievable by creating an environment of self-discovery.
In Frankl’s description of life in the camp, he outlines how he and prisoners reacted to the discovery of unequal lifestyles (84). Mostly, the inadequacy of basic needs, such as food, resulted in chaotic scenarios and feelings of anger. At this point, the individuals had discovered what they desire and the effects of lack. Therefore, in pursuit of necessities, they ought to satisfy their mental states resulting in happiness (Altiner, 7). The experience outthrusts the concept of school setting whereby all basic needs are readily provided to the students. In as much as they desire more significant achievements, they will lack the minimal idea of basic needs.
Moreover, the students will pursue secondary needs such as career and status in society. It will diminish the value of self-identity and individuals’ effort to creating their pathway. Happiness is not a destination to travel to nor a prize to win, but rather an everyday agenda. Therefore, the concept of school will lead the students to happiness but fail to sustain their state. Frankl’s approach elevates the idea of identifying life meaning individually. An informed person has the right emotional intelligence concerning their character and faculty of thoughts. Therefore, they can utilize nature and form environments that suit their purpose.
Availability of happiness
Frankl claims that a person cannot force happiness and purse it but rely on spiritual occurrence. More so, the right positioning and experience can drive an individual towards happiness and discovery of life’s meaning (Bullough, 10). In this case, the school’s agenda to teach happiness is rather ambiguous. Nevertheless, Peter outlines that the founders seek to provide emotional intelligence to the students. It implies that they will have the ability to identify their character and personality.
Proper teachings and the right knowledge can help individuals study the meaning of life. Peter (82) claims that a wide range of knowledge is unimportant in terms of self-understanding. Instead, a person equipped with emotional intelligence has the upper hand of pursuing dynamics that facilitate happiness. However, the struggle is unavoidable, yet an excellent ingredient for enhancing emotions. Whenever a person achieves all the factors, they are assured of happiness rather than striving for it alone.
Conclusion
As found out in the argument, happiness is a continuous state of mind that is achieved by an individual’s efforts and choices driven by desire. Most of the research stipulates that happiness is achievable by the coincidence of satisfying other needs. Therefore, it is not a teachable subject but a result of other relevant approaches. In as much as the school concept is critiqued, it has a varying degree of satisfaction in terms of emotional intelligence. When variables of struggle and satisfaction of needs are incorporated, a school system can provide a satisfactory framework for defining life’s meaning.