According to The World Health Organization (WHO) depression is the principal cause of illness and disability in the world. The organisation has been issuing warnings over several years, as this disease affects over 300 million people all over the world and is characterized by a high risk of suicide (the second most common cause of death in those aged between 15 and 29). Studies on the child population have observed prevalence rates of, for example, 4% in Spain, 8% in Greece, 10% in Australia and up to 25% in Colombia. As the World Health Organization (WHO) has also stated, preventing depression is a key aspect of major importance and the organisation argues that school programs and interventions aimed at parents help reduce the prevalence of this disease. Depression prevention programs do exist, mainly targeted at adolescents and only a few at children that are younger. As these numbers and first remarks show, issues of mental health are supposed to play an important role in contemporary education, be it in school or outside. However, they do largely play a marginal role in schools. Having said that, it has to be clearly stated that schools are not institutions that can cure diseases. But what we can do is to focus on prevention. For this the concept HAPPINESS plays a very important role. Therefore, the main idea of this project is to deal with the different facets of HAPPINESS, declined in different perspectives: happiness can be experienced, following very different ways and paths and because of that also a intercultural approach of the European countries involved is valuable and benefitting. Besides that, respect of cultural differences will be a common goal, in order to make our pupils more sensitive to one of the main mottos of EU: United in diversity. Given that happiness is a basic human need, we want to open up opportunities to the pupils, so that they learn themselves to become happy. This project answers a fundamental need in today's Europe: it makes the pupils think about an existential aspect of their life, although they are not used to reflect on it and they usually take it for granted. For this reason, we see the urgent need for them to talk about these topics, to discover what could possibly make them happy, and to make use of that knowledge in their daily life. At the beginning of the project, pupils will not be aware of the need to discuss the concept of happiness. These ideas include e.g. questions why happiness is such an important issue not only for an individual, but also on a social or even political level. Whereas in countries of the Western hemisphere political debate is still dominated by e.g. the gross domestic product, in Bhutan GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS is a major goal of governance of the country's leaders there. Following a resolution "Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development" (UN General Assembly 2011), urging member nations to follow the example of Bhutan and measure happiness and well-being and calling happiness a "fundamental human goal, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network has published a World Happiness Report almost every year, making it clear that overall happiness of a population is influenced by a set of factors in every country. Similarly, the EU commission issues health reports every year and has called the physical and psychological health of the young generation an important aim. To deepen those philosophical and political ideas of happiness we, the European citizens, have to ask ourselves questions like: What kind of effect does the lack of happiness have (again: for an individual, for society)? What is the relationship between human concepts like HAPPINESS to others like FREEDOM? Participation in this project will allow each participant to reflect on a person's individual resources of happiness as well as on those that have its origins in society. One goal is to facilitate students from different countries to have a cross-cultural reflection on the achievement of happiness. Is it because we are people from Italy, Germany and France that we have different ways of achieving happiness? This is another question that will be raised during the project. Pupils will be confonted with the concept "happiness" in a more THEORETICAL way throughout literature, languages, philosophy, art, theatre, sciences, social studies, as well as in a more PRACTICAL way with the exchange of experiences (in the fields mentioned before, but also by means of e.g. sports) and the encounter with other cultures. The concrete results are: - Final Common Product: a video documentary with the title “The Art of Happiness” - Specific Products: Collège Henri Wallon will produce a theatre play. Liceo IESS will prepare a photo documentation of the project. Leonhard-Wagner-Gynnasium will host a panel discussion at the end of the workshops, reflecting on the results and findings of the project.
According to The World Health Organization (WHO) depression is the principal cause of illness and disability in the world. The organisation has been issuing warnings over several years, as this disease affects over 300 million people all over the world and is characterized by a high risk of suicide (the second most common cause of death in those aged between 15 and 29). Studies on the child population have observed prevalence rates of, for example, 4% in Spain, 8% in Greece, 10% in Australia and up to 25% in Colombia. As the World Health Organization (WHO) has also stated, preventing depression is a key aspect of major importance and the organisation argues that school programs and interventions aimed at parents help reduce the prevalence of this disease. Depression prevention programs do exist, mainly targeted at adolescents and only a few at children that are younger. As these numbers and remarks show, issues of mental health are supposed to play an important role in contemporary education, be it in school or outside. However, they do largely play a marginal role in schools. Having said that, it has to be clearly stated that schools are not institutions that can cure diseases. But what we can do is to focus on prevention. For this the concept HAPPINESS played a very important role during the preparation of the project and the application, which had begun as early as in the year 2019. What we did not know at the time of applying for the project was how important the topic of mental health among children and young people would become in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020, particularly because mental health issues became the big problem among young people because of the policies and measures the governments throughout Europe had to take, which especially affected the individual and social development of young people throughout the whole continent. The application of this project “Happiness is …” had been sent to the EU Commission during the first lockdown in April 2020 and the teachers involved were aware at that very moment that the importance of this project had fundamentally changed because of COVID-19. However what we teacher did not know at that time was how to be able to evaluate the following important questions cautious- and rationally: 1. Which practical consequences would the pandemic have for the organisation of our project weeks? 2. Will it be possible to carry out the project under the circumstances mentioned in the application form? 3. Which conclusions do we have to draw from the learnings and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to possibly change the topic or direction of the project? The teacher team eventually chose an approach towards the project that was radically and fundamentally oriented towards the needs of the children and young people, but also towards all the other people involved in the project (and this was supposed to include the teachers as well). The first conclusion was that a school exchange would only be carried out as an event “in presence” because there were serious doubts whether another virtual event could be benefiting for the school and Erasmus+ communities at all. Therefore, we decided that our project would be prolonged until the largest possible end of 36 months, even though at the time of the decision it was not clear if exchange programmes could be carried out in the school years to come.This decision made as early as in autumn 2020 was a very brave one at that time and paid off perfectly: reminding ourselves the joy and the enthusiasm, the thrill with which the project weeks were carried out by teachers and pupils alike are the clearest evidence for the fact that these decision was awesome. Secondly, we adopted a completely practically-oriented approach towards our “customers”, the children and young people, when preparing the workshops for the project weeks. E.g. whereas in the application form we had partly chosen a theoretical approach towards the project of happiness (e.g. we wanted to have a look at the history of a philosophy of “HAPPINESS”), we reduced this theoretical approach to what was absolutely necessary and important. Instead, we concentrated on preparing, carrying out and presenting the our ideas of what is happiness in a practical, interactive and very entertaining form, inviting the pupils and parents to join in. It was our motivation in those difficult times during and immediately after the pandemic to create an atmosphere in school where we could transport values like community and what a positive form of school life could be, that would go even beyond national borders. I am proud to be able to say that I have been part of an international teacher team that has been successful at getting across that message. Last, but not least, we have experienced a lot of joy, humour and fun ourselves, while we worked hard for the success of the project.