Exploring Well-Being in Schools: A Guide to Making Children's Lives more Fulfilling

by White; John Peter

• ISBN13: 9780415603485
• ISBN10: 041560348X
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781136715822
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2011-04-21
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details

Summary

Despite a dramatic rise in average income in the last forty years, people are no happier. Since the millennium personal well-being has recently shot up the political and educational agendas, with schools in the UK even including 'Personal Well-being' as a curriculum topic in its own right.This book takes teachers, student teachers and parents step by step through the many facets of well-being, pausing at each step to look at the educational implications for teachers and parents trying to make our children's lives more meaningful.With his renowned talent for distilling the most complex of philosophical arguments into accessible laymen's terms, John White addresses the moral maze of well-being through three distinct parts:Part one describes the remarkable growth of interest in children's well-being in the UK since 2000, and suggests that a philosophical look at the concept of well-being is essential, so that teachers and parents can avoid confusion and misunderstanding. Part two takes the reader step-by-step through the intricacies of the concept in a deliberately accessible way with each chapter containing a substantial section showing how the new ideas just introduced can be taken up in education, especially in schools. Part three is about the future of education for well-being, pulling together, expanding on home as well as school, discussing the main aims and emphases of an education focussed on personal well-being. The author also looks at how school's traditional practices will have to change, given the new focus on well-being.As well as looking at educational implications of all these questions step by step, the book concludes with an extensive practical guide for families and schools wanting to realise the new well-being agenda.This short, engaging book takes the reader with little or no background in philosophy into these issues. It is of special interest to teachers and parents, since they are now at the sharp end of the culture change we are now experiencing.

Author Biography

John White is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education University of London, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Well-being and education, step by step	p. 9
Children's well-being in the new millennium	p. 11
Initial questions	p. 15
Issuesfor education	p. 17
Well-being: some religious legacies	p. 20
Issues for education	p. 24
Well-being and need satisfaction	p. 27
Issues for education	p. 29
Fame, wealth and positional goods	p. 33
Issues for education	p. 38
A life of pleasure	p. 41
Issues for education	p. 45
Getting what we want	p. 48
Issues for education	p. 54
Worthwhile activities	p. 58
Issues for education	p. 63
Work and well-being	p. 68
Issues for education	p. 72
Living the good life: well-being and morality	p. 77
Issues for education	p. 82
Are there experts on well-being?	p. 86
Issues for education	p. 93
Depth without spirituality?	p. 96
Issues for education	p. 103
The meaning of life	p. 107
Issues for education	p. 109
Education for well-being: the way forward	p. 111
What well-being is: a summary	p. 113
Well-being for all in a more equal society	p. 116
Education for well-being: the wider picture	p. 121
Priorities	p. 121
Schools and families	p. 124
Taking aims seriously	p. 126
Well-being aims: a first look	p. 129
The primacy of dispositions	p. 131
Knowledge and understanding	p. 134
Rethinking the curriculum	p. 135
Education for well-being: learning arrangements	p. 137
Well-being as a school subject	p. 137
The place of subjects	p. 138
Compulsion and choice	p. 138
Working and learning	p. 139
Collaborative and solitary learning	p. 140
Discussion	p. 141
Assessment	p. 141
Conclusion	p. 144
Further reading	p. 146
References	p. 148
Index	p. 150
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