White Psych Well-Being (2016) 6:2 DOI 10.1186/s13612-016-0039-1 DEBATE Open Access Why won’t it Stick? Positive Psychology and Positive Education Mathew A. White1,2* *Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract 1 St Peter’s College, St Peters, Following the launch of the positive psychology movement teachers and educators Adelaide, SA 5069, Australia Full list of author information emerged as early adopters of this fledgling science. This approach was called posi- is available at the end of the tive education. It describes scientifically validated programs from positive psychology, article taught in schools, that have an impact on student well-being. The growing body of evidence about the reach of positive psychology has formed a convincing case to con- sider well-being an operational goal for educational systems. It is argued that this goal is pivotal and should be pursued in the same way in which we develop strategies to harness academic growth, school retention rates, and student engagement. National education policies can have widespread influence at the grassroots level on school improvement, good quality of classroom teaching and learning, student performance, creating confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens, but not necessarily on the preventative skills for lifelong well-being. In this article I take stock on the positive education movement. Three approaches to positive education are identi- fied and eight hurdles to the field are noted as reasons why positive education won’t stick in policy. Then, I reflect on two case studies: a Well-being Summit and Round Table held at Wellington College and No.