The Power to Choose Happiness: An Educational Researcher’s Journey at Living Wisdom School

By Jack Dieckmann, PhD

Educational Researcher, Stanford University Living Wisdom School Parent

As both a parent and an education researcher, I have spent years studying how children learn and develop. This reflection grew out of watching my own children experience Education for Life in practice at Living Wisdom School.

Loved, Taught, Challenged, and Nurtured

My two children attended Living Wisdom School for seven years. Before we discovered LWS, they were enrolled in four separate schools. While each school had its merits, none of them ever felt completely right for our family.

At Living Wisdom School, I know without the slightest doubt that my children are loved, taught, challenged, and nurtured every day.

What more could a parent ask?

The richness of the Living Wisdom Education for Life philosophy arises from a deep, consistent valuing of the unique and special qualities of each child’s mind, heart, hands, and soul.

Education for Life Is More Than an Abstract System

As an education researcher, I have studied human development and learning from a cognitive and social perspective, often absent the key dimension of the soul, in the most expansive sense of the term.

When I first became acquainted with Living Wisdom School, I assumed my academic background would prepare me to understand Education for Life. I dutifully read the Education for Life book and tried to assimilate its ideas into the frameworks I had studied in graduate school.

That approach did not work.

Education for Life is far more than an abstract system that can be absorbed and intellectualized by the rational mind. I read the book several times and could scarcely decipher its meaning, filtered as it was through the theoretical assumptions my education and experience had fostered.

The Living Arena of a Child’s Daily Experience

As the years passed and I began to understand Education for Life more deeply, I realized that it can only be truly studied and evaluated in the living arena of a child’s daily experiences, in the classroom and on the playground.

Education for Life can only be truly studied and evaluated in the living arena of a child’s daily experience.

I watched with wonder as both of my children began to thrive under this approach. I was deeply moved to see how their growth was reflected in key moments of our journey as a family.

Growth Beyond the Classroom

I have been deeply impressed by the many ways my children’s consciousness and learning have expanded through their participation in the yearly all-school Theater Magic play, the literary journal, the spring art show, the music concerts, and the culturally inclusive celebrations and field trips woven throughout the school year.

Whenever my son experienced obstacles in his academic subjects, his teachers had the freedom and flexibility to give him all the help he needed. They adapted the curriculum and the teaching approach to meet his unique needs.

Throughout my years of observing Living Wisdom teachers, I have been continually struck by the energy they bring to noticing and valuing the gifts each child brings.

One teacher told me that my son played a key role in initiating and sustaining deep class discussions, offering perspectives that advanced learning for everyone. He was in fourth grade.

Learning That Cannot Be Reduced to a Grade

At LWS, the feedback we receive in parent-teacher conferences and on report cards is unique. The reports are ungraded, because the richness of student learning "cannot be reduced to a simple percentage or letter grade."

Instead of the anxieties and undue pressures associated with many “high-performing” schools, my children have found a place of adventure, friendship, and safety. For example, an LWS teacher shared how my son, even in fourth grade, initiated deep class discussions and offered stimulating perspectives that advanced learning for everyone.

The learning taking place is simply too layered, too human, and too alive for that.

A Place of Adventure, Friendship, and Safety

My children have very different personalities, yet both have found Living Wisdom to be a place of adventure, friendship, and safety, free from the anxieties and undue pressures associated with many other schools, especially so-called high-performing schools.

Both of my children have found Living Wisdom to be a place of adventure, friendship, and safety.

Confidence Born of Acceptance

My daughter has experienced tremendous acceptance and love throughout her journey at Living Wisdom. The school has supported her identity as an artist, which is the primary medium through which she expresses herself.

At an end-of-year ceremony, I watched her give a short speech about a personal quality her teachers had observed in her over the year. She stood before an audience of more than 200 students, teachers, parents, and relatives.

She spoke with complete confidence.

She was able to do this because she believed in what she was saying and knew she was surrounded by a community of friends who were cheering her on.

An Education That Extends Into Life

Our experience of Living Wisdom School has given me confidence that I am fulfilling my sacred duty as a parent.

My children are receiving an education of the highest possible quality, one that prepares them not only for college and career, but for something deeper.

They know they have the power to choose happiness wherever they go.

The joy and wisdom that have unfolded for my children and our family through the Living Wisdom community feel boundless.