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Why Happiness?

 

They taught us maths, yet no one taught us how to count our blessings.
They taught us languages, yet no one taught us how to communicate positively.
They taught us geography yet no one taught us how to navigate our emotions.
They taught us PE, yet no one taught us the power of mindset.
They taugh us history, yet no one taught us how to look within for a sustainable future. 

We were taught to fit in, to correspond to expectations, not to be too outrageous, and to dream within the limits. We weren't taught to live by meaning, purpose and to action accordingly to our values and beliefs system. To 'push civilization forward' or to change the world.

This led to 21st century’s major symptoms and diseases: Anxiety, Comparison, Stress, Depression, Burnout, Suicide, and more.

We know the schools of today are changing: a kid is not solely a number anymore and their worth doesn't depend on the academic ranking solely. The kid of today is taught to play to their strenghts because in this modern world, all talent is valid.

It is time to reverse engineer all this. In such a complex world, the leaders of tomorrow need to learn tools that will allow them to cope with it.

Lead Facilitator

Jonathan Carey

Jonathan is a qualified Social Worker from Sydney, Australia, with many years experience in Social Work and in Educative roles, currently finishing his Masters in Primary Teaching. He is passionate about supporting children, young people and communities to reach their goals and has strong experience in Community Development, Special Needs Schools, Community Planning, Group Work Intervention, Youth Centre Management, Outreach Programs, Substance Use Rehabilitation, Case-management, Counseling in AOD, Early Intervention Programs, Leadership Training and Targeted School Programs.

He is currently running the Class of Happiness extra-curricular activity at St. James Primary School and supporting kids with special needs at King's College Cascais.

Facilitator

Catarina Pires

Catarina is a graduate of ISPA with a Master's degree in Educational Psychology. She started her professional path in the UK (Northern Ireland) giving support to children with special needs in a school context, and the following year she was invited to perform the same role in Malta.
In 2017 she returned to Portugal where she started working in international and bilingual schools. While working in these schools Catarina realised the importance that the role of the family plays in the educational context, so, she took a course at Harvard - "Introduction to Family Engagement in Education".
Throughout these years working as an educational psychologist, Catarina has been supporting children from 0 to 18 years old, carrying out several functions such as neuropsychological assessment, providing individual guidance to children and young people, family counselling and counselling of educational professionals (educators, teachers and support teachers) and the development of psycho-educational programmes - such as social-emotional skills programmes.
Currently, Catarina's mission is to raise the awareness of teachers, educators, parents and the school community towards a pedagogy that benefits the well-being of children.