Dear Principal:

Nowadays there is an enormous concern about the negative psychological effects that is causing the actual and rapidly changing development of the present human society on our children. The prevalence of depression among young people is shockingly high worldwide. Nearly 20% of youth experience an episode of clinical depression by the end of high school. By some estimates depression is about ten times more common now than it was 50 years ago. In addition, several studies suggest that the age of first onset has decreased from adulthood to adolescence. This is a paradox; particularly for those who believe that well-being comes from the environment. Almost everything is better now than it was 50 years ago; there is about three times more actual purchasing power, dwellings are much bigger, there are many more cars, and clothes are more atractive. Progress has not been limited to the material: there is more education, more music, and more women´s rights, less racism, less pollution, fewer tyrants, more entertainment, more books, and fewer soldiers dying on the battlefield. Everything is better, that is, everything exept human morale. Depresion and anxiety are rampant, and average individual and average hapiness, which has been measure competently for half a century, has not remotely kept up with improvement in the world. Happiness has gone up only spottily, if at all. As professors, we should be concern about this reallity and take all possible solutions to avoid our kids fall in the wrong life style that have conducted human being to the actual global crisis of happiness. A crisis that is not just environmental but mainly personal.

Before continuing, a quiz: In two words or less, what do you most want for your children? If you are like the hundreds of parents I’ve asked, you responded, Happiness, Confidence, Contentment, Balance, Good Stuff, Kindness, Health, Satisfaction, and the like. In short, you most want well-being for your children. In two words or less, what do schools teach? If you are like other parents, you responded Achievement, Thinking Skills, Success, Conformity, Literacy, Mathematics, Discipline and the like. Notice that there is almost no overlap between the two lists. The schooling of children has, for more than a century, been about accomplishment, the boulevard into the world of adult work. I am all for accomplishment, success, literacy, and discipline; but imagine if schools could, without compromising either, teach both the skills of well-being and the skills of achievement. Imagine Positive Education. We would like to invite you to be part of a multicultural school community that want to share, learn, exchange and create the best things of life. To do this we can use positive language lectures to learn on a contextualize basis, and a the same time learn by sharing the best things of our past, present and future life. We call this movement “programme e-Happiness”, a multicultural program that connects two geographycally separated classes of students and its foreing language teachers trhoughout video-lectures (video-conference). To do this, as the Chilean Department of Education we have design a simple and easy to follow program that can be use as a starting step. Furthermore, we will contact you with a rural school and its english language professor, so you can start this unic experience with a beautiful group of students from the rural Chile. The programme has been design by and educational company called Effective Sustainable Solutions (ESUS), which have being working with the department on several programs with the department. Please I invite you to contact me as the Director of E-Happiness Program. Thanks for using your time to think on these proposal of life prosperity, David Ampuero C. e-mail: david.ampuero@gmail.com