For most students, a class on happiness would be no class at all.

But for 800 students at Harvard, it is very much real, with a syllabus, assignments and exams. Talk about an oxymoron.

Devoted to examining what conditions lead to satisfaction and distress, the Harvard course on happiness is just one of many popping up at colleges and universities around the world — a positive trend, writes former Harvard president Derek Bok at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In his article “College and the Well-Lived Life”, Bok reports that more students than ever are taking “a remarkably materialistic view of what a college education can provide”, given that about 75 percent of entering freshman rank making a lot of money as a top priority. But major research has shown that people whose only goal is to be rich tend to lead less fulfilling lives, Bok notes. (Take it away, Hall & Oates.)

Extracurriculars, designed to broaden a student’s perspectives and interests, reach fewer students now than before, as older undergraduates and commuters — who are less likely to participate in them — make up larger and larger portions of student bodies. So in order to teach students how to live full and satisfying lives, Bok recommends education tailored to that vaguely New-Agey ideal: well-being.

Classes dedicated to the study of happiness are one approach, while the other is more practical: teaching how to express gratitude, say, or perform a good deed. Classes like this one boast claims like “as a result of at­tending this class, you will also experience a personal transforma­tion in which you become a more positive person” and “develop a zest for living a virtuous, satisfying, and meaningful life”.

Yet another way to help students find the path to a meaningful life would be a thorough examination of the long-lasting effects of their chosen profession, beyond salary.

Ultimately, Bok’s argument is this:

Nevertheless, educa­tors and policy makers must recognize that there is much more to education than becoming a productive member of the work­ force—and more to universities than producing “human capital.” Happiness remains the ultimate end to which other goals are only the means. Education cannot tell students what will make them happy. But universities can do their best to supply them with the knowledge, skills, and interests that will aid them in their search.

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