Touching on the benefits that can be reaped when pupils are taught positive thinking, this book will make for thought provoking reading for anyone interested in learners’ wider social and personal education.
Flourish: a new understanding of happiness and well being
Synopsis
Dr Martin Seligman believes teachers can support positive thinking. Regarded as one of the founders of Positive Psychology, and today Director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center, Seligman argues that positive thinking is a better predictor of success than IQ, and that schools should teach pupils resilience, positive thinking and how to have an optimistic attitude in order to help them thrive at school and later on in the workplace.
He concludes that there are five elements to ‘wellbeing’: positive emotion; relationships; meaning; and achievement. Each of these is made up of three properties: contributing to wellbeing; pursued for its own sake, and not as a shortcut to other goals; and being independently defined and measured.
Teaching pupils these elements and properties can, according to Seligman, equip them with the life skills needed to succeed in modern society.