The Joy of Non-Fiction: Best (Most Influential) Pick

In January of 2007 I read a New York Times article entitled “Happiness 101” that described a George Mason University class called The Science of Well-Being, “essentially a class in how to make yourself happier” (7 Jan. 2007). The class studied gratitude, hope, and optimism, and there was an interesting distinction made between feeling good and doing good. Students were assigned to perform one act of each, to do something they enjoyed doing and to do something that would provide something positive for someone else.  Interestingly students later decided that doing good--doing something for someone else--actually resulted in a longer lasting feeling of happiness. The focus wasn’t only about personal happiness, but “embracing civic engagement … connectedness, hope and charity.” Discussing the article with my students raised even more questions: Can happiness be studied? What role does environment play in our happiness, like family and /friends? I later found that the most popular course at Harvard is a class just like the one the original article described, and its professor, Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, wrote this book, Happier, in 2007 to describe his course. After reading the book I’ve raised many of his points in my own classes, and I have used them to help students analyze the literature we read. Some ideas have been future-focused, ideas about goal setting (and postponement of gratification); others are more recursive, exploring feelings of connectedness with others, from students’ families to their communities to the world.
Why select this book as the most influential work of non-fiction? Well, I can’t think of a topic more important than the study of happiness. In terms of my students’ opinions, while statistics may vary in terms of high school dropout rates, no matter what sources you read they are high, and anyone involved in education knows that adolescent depression is an issue (Ben-Shahar writes that “rates of depression are ten times higher today than they were in the 1960s, and the average age for the onset of depression is 14½ compared to 29½ in 1960,” Ben-Shahar cites, on page ix). Other serious issues, like self-esteem, as well as health concerns like anorexia and obesity, are undoubtedly tied to levels of personal happiness. And, as reported quite consistently in our media, these issues are present in every strata of our society. (The cover story for Newsweek Magazine this February discusses antidepressants, calling them “the nation’s most popular pills,”  for example, 8 Feb. 2010). If, as parents and as educators, we are creating lifelong learners, a focus on the theme of happiness is important; it is also important for me to remember that I am not merely a teacher of literature—I am a teacher of young people—and my teaching must encompass the whole child. A huge challenge, most definitely…

What have I learned from this text? Many, many things—I’ve worked through many of Ben-Shahar’s exercises myself. And I know they would be quite informative for others. Our overly-hectic, twenty-first century lives sometimes deplete our feelings of happiness, and many people feel the need to simplify their lives. While the expectation of constant happiness is unrealistic, increasing our level of happiness is possible—it can be gained by greater knowledge, through education in its broadest sense, through examining ourselves, our literature, and our world.