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They also provide opportunities for students, and parents, to offer feedback, thereby assessing performance in multiple ways and manners, consistent with the intelligences and learning styles found in every classroom. Indeed, one test or measure does not fit all, and success and achievement can and should be measured in various ways. This is an enormous challenge, to be sure, and one that falls squarely on the shoulders of our school leaders and teachers. A school that pursues happiness will most assuredly be a place where school leaders and teachers share a sense of hope in the redemptive power of education to change the lives of the students in their charge. I learned many years ago that to encourage a happy school, one must hire mission-driven and happy people. In his monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Jim Collins urges that "getting the right people on the bus" is as important in schools as it is in corporations. Hiring teachers who see the potential in each child, and then committing the school to a coherent program of professional development for teachers is a must. And the school must allow for time to play, to learn, to express the personhood of each child. Recess and unstructured play for younger children, and schedules that allow for exploration, understanding and mastery as well as the development of friendships and social life for children of all ages are vital to the healthy and happy school. Such time commitments also speak to the need for the development of a parent partnership with the school. While not encouraging helicopter attitudes, parents and school must share responsibility for educating children to be the people nature intends. Many years ago the psychologist David Elkind warned about the creation of the "hurried child," one whose life is so structured that little free time exists for healthy development. We have good reason to fear that matters have become even worse, with economic changes, parental work schedules, and our growing fears about competition. The happy school allows parents time to step back, to consider the psychological well-being of their children, and brings them face-to-face with the realities of parenting in the 21st century. Perfection is not always achievable, and failure can be healthy, as long as challenges are reasonable and developmentally appropriate. As Wendy Mogel has written, there are true blessings that come from a skinned knee. None of this is to argue that our children should not be challenged. In fact, all learning comes from overcoming challenges and dealing with change and the unfairness of life. Standards must be high, expectations clear. And children must be encouraged on a path of goodness, not merely self-referential achievement. For if we hold our moral and ethical standards high, and we offer children opportunities to connect responsibly to their world in meaningful ways, the path to happiness is smoothed. In fact, required community service is one of the great revolutions in independent schools over the last two generations. The new status quo recognizes that the way to a happy school demands that our children eschew narcissistic temptation and engage in good work toward others. Those of us in education for the last 30 years hold that this generation of students is more socially committed than ever before. A New Type of Rigor One might be tempted to argue that the happy school might not offer what is considered the traditional rigorous school experience, and that it does not value what is generally measured when discussing school achievement and success. But to believe that is to define rigor too narrowly. For schools to be happy, they must also be places of genuine rigor, places that dedicate themselves to what we have discovered truly works in education. We must be rigorous in the ways we offer students opportunities to draw upon their multiple intelligences and strengths. Schools need to offer a rigorous range of assessments across ability and talent levels and learning styles. We must hire school leaders and teachers who demonstrate their talents in reaching the children in their charge. We need to reassess the ways in which we employ schedules and give children greater freedom for play, reflection and socialization. And we must work diligently to create opportunities for all children to rise to the better angels of their natures in service to one another and to their world at large. Ours is an exciting time in education. Ultimately attending to what one may call the "happiness agenda" in our schools can lead to greater hope for the future in this our most vital task, preparing our children for the challenges of a future world that can only be approximated. TREVOR DAY SCHOOL / 47 INSIDE TREVOR TREVOR TRANSLATES FEATURE AR TICLES ALUMNI

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