Happiness in schools: Can Haidt help us hope?

Abstract

Jonathon Haidt has written a number of books that reflect his social psychological research (Haidt 2006, 2013, 2024; Lukianoff & Haidt, 2018). His latest one has had wide coverage, in part because of his recommendations about school and home life. In the midst of these writings, and in subsequent online posts (on his After Babel Substack column), he admits that he respects religion and that he sometimes needs the language of religion to make sense of what he observes. He also admits that the Christian argument on the human search for ultimate meaning “… is so complicated that I cannot understand it” (2006, p. 73). This review of Haidt’s work will suggest that an anthropological framework that accepts an ‘embodied soul’ description of personhood would enable better applications of his observations, which could offer deeper hope for our students – that is, that hope is better built on understanding and engaging with the holy, more than in reductionist happiness strategies.