The Post Oak School · 4600 Bissonnet · Bellaire, TX 77401 · TEL 713-661-6688
Accredited by the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI); founded 1963
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S EP TE MB E R 1 0
IMPORTANT DATES
SEPTEMBER
Tue
14
POPA
Dinner
Junior League 7pm
Fri
17
Faculty Retreat
School Closed:
No Students in Attendance
Mon
20
Redirecting Children's
Behavior
6:30-9 pm
Session 1 of 6 ($ Registration req.)
Middle School at Blackwood
this week
Thu
23
Full-Day Infant
Parent Orientation 7pm
Mon
27
Infant Parenting A
1:30-3:00 pm
Session 1
Held in Susan Tracy’s room
Tue
28
Infant Parenting B
1:30- 3:00 pm
Session 1
The Motherhood Center
Redirecting Children's
Behavior
6:30- 9 pm
Session 2 of 6
See you at
Tuesday’s
POPA
Dinner
FAX 713-661-4959
www.postoakschool.org
The Pursuit of Happiness
By John Long, Head of School
"T
he happiness of the people is the purpose of government." John Adams
wrote that statement--a mission statement for the new American
government-- while serving as one of the Massachusetts delegates to Congress in
1776. Adams' message predates the later, more famous phrase of Thomas
Jefferson, who was appointed by that same Congress to draft, as a committee of
one, the Declaration of Independence. In it he declared that our God-given
rights include, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
What did Adams and Jefferson and the other political philosophers of the Age of
Reason have in mind when discussing the pursuit of happiness? Adams made it
clear in his later writing that he was not thinking about entertainment or leisure
or pleasure. In clarification, Adams said that happiness derives from virtue.
What does this have to do with school? A Post Oak dad confessed last week,
"My worst nightmare as a kid was to be locked in school."--hardly a prescription
for happiness. When I ask parents, “How many of you get excited about
learning?” almost everyone raises their hand. When I ask the same group of
parents, “How many of you liked school?” I get a
very mixed response. What’s wrong with this
picture?
Many parents come to Post Oak because it is
different. Learning at Post Oak is fundamentally
different from what most of us experienced as
children. And Post Oak is fundamentally different
from traditional schools today. When you first
came to Post Oak we asked, "What are you looking
for? What do you want for your children?" Many
parents reply, "I want them to be happy."
The Junior League 7pm
……………………..continues
P O S Ne ws
Page 2
The Pursuit of Happiness….
How do you achieve happiness? John Adams said it is to be found in virtue and though he wasn't speaking
of children, a virtuous child makes most parents and teachers happy, and I daresay, makes himself happy as
well. We certainly aim to develop children of virtue.
But there is more. Over the past thirty-five years, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, former chair of the psychology
department at the University of Chicago, has pursued an understanding of happiness. He has found that
happiness is not simply a matter of fate or good fortune, but rather, that people can learn to cultivate
happiness within their own lives. Life’s best moments “usually occur when a person’s body or mind is
stretched to its limits in voluntary effort to
accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
In those moments of optimal experience, we enter a
state Csikszentmihalyi described as “flow”—
a period of deep concentration and total focus; a
period when time seems to stand still; and when we
do finish with the task at hand, we come away
invigorated rather than fatigued.
Csikszentmihalyi has observed that there is a direct
relationship between flow and happiness.
What does this have to do with school?
Dr. Montessori noted that children working in her
classrooms experienced a state of deep
concentration. She observed that when children
display such intense focus, they are unaware of
other activity around them and they come away
from their work feeling refreshed rather than
fatigued.
She further observed that this leads to the psychological transformation of
the child, a process she called “normalization”—realizing one’s full
potential. And though she didn’t talk about “the pursuit of happiness,”
she did say that a normalized child
displays consistent character traits
including “joy.”
More importantly, she said that a child who
develops his own skills through such work
and who learns to utilize his talents in the
service of others, experiences “an almost
religious sense of dignity and worth.”
I think that would satisfy John Adams’
pursuit of happiness through virtue. And
perhaps the pursuit of happiness explains
why yesterday middle school students,
whose life motto might be, “Is it time to eat yet?” couldn’t be pulled away
from a discussion of Supreme Court decisions– even though it was already
time for lunch.
Copyright John Long and The Post Oak School
Page 4
P O S Ne ws
Forgot to RSVP
for Tuesday’s
POPA
Dinner?
Be a Part of Post Oak School
Gala 2005!
Parent volunteers already have been hard at work this
summer preparing for “Some ARTrageous Evening:
Celebrating the Making of Masterpieces” to be held on
Friday, March 11, 2005, at the Hotel InterContinental –
Galleria.
Let us know
on Monday
and we’ll
fit you in.
Join us on Tuesday, September 21 at 8:45 a.m. (after
drop-off) in the Aftercare Room upstairs. All are
welcome! Hear about our successes to date, plans in
progress and find out how you can get involved. Lots of
jobs are still up for the taking. So come learn how you can
put your time and talents to good use!
Questions?
Contact Gala Chair Danielle Kernell.
About The Post Oak News
The Post Oak News is published weekly while school is in session. It is distributed each Friday to the oldest child in your family.
It is also available at the school’s web site: www.postoakschool.org
The deadline for material to be considered for inclusion each week is 5 pm on the Tuesday preceding the day of publication.
Please direct all material in electronic form to Janice Elkins, Director of Development: [email protected]
Please call Janice if you have any questions: 713-661-6688 ext. 124.