With all of the activity underway in the Middle School, the winter break seems a distant memory. This week, we were host to a contingent of educators from South Korea who were interested in learning more about our approach to science education and progressive pedagogy. I am always excited to share our school with visitors as these encounters always provide an opportunity to see what we do from a different perspective. What we regularly take to be the norm and part of our daily routine, often reveals itself as something quite unique when seen through the questions and comments of our visitors:

• “The students seem to be so active and involved in conversations with each other. Is it always like this?”
• “There seems to be much more doing than sitting and listening.”
• “It seems like much of the learning is connected to projects and problems. Is this the case?”
• “The students seem very happy.”

This last comment is a not insignificant one and a major reason behind this group’s visit. As progressive schools have recognized all along, attending to the needs of the whole child is a necessary condition for creating opportunities for real and lasting learning. Students who are invested in purposeful work carried out in a learning environment that supports collaboration and creativity and that values and respects the individual worth of each of it’s members are likely to be happy students. Happiness in this context is not just a matter of feeling good, but is more importantly a reflection of engagement, connection and purpose. So how do these ideas connect to the visit from our Korean guests?

As Staurt Grauer observes in reflecting on his recent visit to South Korea to present the closing speech at the 2013 Annual Seoul International Education Forum,

Earlier this very year in Seoul at her swearing in to office, Park Geun-hye, South Korea’s new president, made a revolutionary promise — to make her workaholic, ultra-competitive, stressed-out people happy: “I will usher in a new era of hope, whereby the happiness of each citizen becomes the bedrock of our nation’s strength,” she said. This goal quickly flowed into the national ministries, and so we gathered this year with Seoul Ministry of Education, in the name of happiness. Seoul’s vision and courage to focus on happiness as a real goal is a leadership vision that sees far beyond the stellar standardized test results of its sleep-deprived students. Could we begin to address and value student happiness with the directness of any other educational objective? If any nation were to judge its teachers based upon the results of their students in academic skills and happiness combined—those teachers would have grounds for gratitude and would surely earn the attention of the world.

So it was exciting to learn with our visitors through dialog and questions centered around the LREI experience and our approach to “happiness education.” When our visitors left at the end of the day, I felt energized by what we do each day in the service of our mission. I also felt excited to continue the hard work of innovating around our “norm” and pushing us forward toward deeper and richer learning and happiness for students, teachers and families.