{"id":1066,"date":"2011-05-19T16:52:52","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T15:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2013-07-01T18:02:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-01T17:02:37","slug":"being-happy-by-anne-k-voss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/","title":{"rendered":"BEING Happy by Anne K Voss"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2004 I started as a teacher of\u00a0English and Fine Art at a special school in Aachen, Germany.\u00a0 Our school is a night-school where lessons are from 5 to 9.50 p.m and our students are mostly young adults. \u00a0The youngest admitted are 17 years old, the oldest I ever taught were a Russian couple of about 60 years, but the average student is between 18 and 35 years old.\u00a0 So we do have quite a large span of ages in our semesters. \u00a0Besides that our students come from\u00a0more than 50 countries. \u00a0They attend our school to accomplish their junior high school graduation which they had not been able to do before \u2013 for various reasons. \u00a0Some come from war zones, others have a history of family problems and some fought or fight with addictions.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0often feel touched and very compassionate towards them as they are trying to fight their demons and at the same time are\u00a0striving for\u00a0 graduation and a better future. \u00a0As I have a bit of psychological training I see many of them and wish\u00a0to support them so very much, especially as some are married and already have children of their own and many will start their own little families \u00a0not too long from now. \u00a0 So a healthy, safe and sane basis for the next\u00a0 generation would be a wonderful thing to achieve.<\/p>\n

But my role as a teacher is not a psychological one and they\u00a0should never get mixed up.\u00a0 So\u00a0 I designed a support programme with external psychologists, but failed sadly in getting the educational authorities, who highly praised the idea, to take over financial responsibility (which would have been rather small as the 2 psychologists who wanted to join in, asked for\u00a0very little money).\u00a0 After trying for almost three years I was frustrated and on the verge of giving up.<\/p>\n

Then in January 2007 I saw a\u00a0brief\u00a0 TV report on Ian Morris teaching \u00a0\u2018A Course in Well Being\u2019 at Wellington College and I became very excited. \u00a0There it was, the solution. \u00a0Why should I\u00a0wait for others if there was a chance to act myself.<\/p>\n

I contacted Ian Morris and he was so very kind to send me all his papers for a whole years course\u00a0 for free to use at our school. \u00a0In February 2008, after rearranging and amending it for our students and\u00a0the German situation and\u00a0getting permission from our headmasters and the regional educational authorities, I started with the first semester on a one year’s course of \u00a0‘BEING happy \u2013 how does that work ?’ \u00a0Well, I know Ian Morris does not talk about \u2018teaching happiness\u2019 because he says, ‘this one cannot learn’.\u00a0 But, being buddhist, I have learned the positive effects of the attentiveness of the moment and that this can indeed be furthered and that there are plenty of\u00a0ways\u00a0to learn and consequently to\u00a0also teach this.<\/p>\n

So I decided to put the emphasis on the ‘BEING’ happy and the little tips and tricks that one can learn to support a flourishing life.\u00a0 Up until now I have received feedback on 5 semesters (about 75 students all together) that they love it.\u00a0 They tell me things like; \u2018 I didn\u2019t believe in it in the beginning, but what you taught us, really works.\u2019 And my fellow teachers tell me that those students are friendlier, calmer and more interested in their lessons. \u00a0Additionally the statistics support us.\u00a0 We have a high number of drop-outs in other semesters, sometimes up to 50 % of those who have started a year, but the semesters on \u2018BEING happy\u2019 stay rather constant (less than 15 % drop out) and also show better results with even more quality certificates than ever before (maybe a coincidence).<\/p>\n

So what did and what\u00a0do we do?<\/p>\n

<\/dl>\n

In summer 2007 our then headmaster Mr Niespor applied to the educational administration for a test run. So my fellow teacher E. Reisen, a philosopher, and I started team teaching \u00a0\u2018BEING Happy- how does that work?\u2019 with a half year course in February 2008. \u00a0In August 2008 we extended it to a whole year\u2019s course based on the experience of the first half year.\u00a0 Since then we either teach in team teaching or at the moment in parallel courses.\u00a0 I, in my officially called art lessons (the art of living?) and Erich in his philosophy lessons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dr. Erich Reisen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each single lesson starts with three breathing exercises from Yoga and a brief period of meditation (5 \u2013 10 min., which I rather call \u2018sitting in silence\u2019 than meditation as we have a lot of Muslim students and this is not on religion).\u00a0 This is followed by a round of\u00a0 ‘What happened during the last few days or weeks that gave me a good feeling?\u00a0 Or ‘where I succeeded.’ \u00a0And the lesson ends with wishing myself and all the others a beneficial time.\u00a0 This rather ritualised start and end of each lesson seems to be quite supportive for the students, most of them like it\u00a0a lot. \u00a0In between we work on different topics with many different methods, most of them based on experience-oriented tasks \u00a0as I very much believe in a learning with body and mind .<\/p>\n

During the first half year called \u2018I \u2013 I \u2013 I \u2019 we keep looking at the individual student and what each of them can do to support their individual well being, good food, enough water\/liquids, enough light, sleep, sports etc.\u00a0 Also advising the students about how to find their own positive resources (using an NLP exercise), how to find a stable stand (in body and mind), where to find their place in a triangle of \u2018love, insight and order\u2019 (an exercise from constellation work) etc.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
students working on the project: How long do you want happiness to last?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second half of the year is called \u2018 I \u2013 You \u2013 We \u2019 and looks at relations with others and how we can have loving relations with others and a responsible relationship with the world. \u00a0Amongst the topics here are the theme centered interaction according to Ruth Cohn, non violent communications (Marshall B. Rosenberg), the bio chemistry of love and our responsibility in our community and for a healthy environment.<\/p>\n

In Germany we are the only school running a programme like this for a whole year. \u00a0At very few other schools, pupils are taught equivalent aspects for a period of about 6 \u2013 8 weeks.<\/p>\n

To be quite honest not every fellow teacher at our school likes us doing this, they argue that\u00a0more maths or languages would be better; not every student likes it, they say \u2018it\u2019s too esoteric\u2019 (these are the few who usually do\u00a0not even come to the lessons), but the general reaction is very positive and supportive and we have the full support of our head masters.<\/p>\n

Lately those joining the classes, that can last a semester, ask to be taught “BEING happy”.\u00a0 One of the classes has only half a year left until graduation so I developped an accelerated course for them.<\/p>\n

And just last week I spent a wonderful time with two groups at a local whole food store who offered a food-tasting session for the students, a wonderful chance to talk about responsible agriculture and stockbreeding.\u00a0 I also cooperate with a Yoga teacher who comes to the classes and\u00a0fellow teachers who contribute with the knowledge from their fields Also with local sponsors for meditation cushions and sports utilities, if needed.<\/p>\n

So what happens is very important for our students, they are seen<\/strong> by society and they also\u00a0realise that\u00a0there are people caring.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned before, there is no official subject called \u2018BEING Happy\u2019 we offer those lessons in what on our timetable is called art and\/or philosophy and the verifiable outcome of better marks, more sober and responsible behaviour and more stable numbers of students shows that we are on a good path.\u00a0 I have another three years at this school, so I will be able to support another maybe 80 \u2013 100 students, but I hope very much to be able to hand this over to other teachers so it spreads for the benevolence of students and teachers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The author: Anne K Voss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2004 I started as a teacher of\u00a0English and Fine Art at a special school in Aachen, Germany.\u00a0 Our school is a night-school where lessons are from 5 to 9.50 p.m and our students are mostly young adults. \u00a0The youngest admitted are 17 years old, the oldest I ever taught were a Russian couple of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBEING Happy by Anne K Voss - Many Roads<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"BEING Happy by Anne K Voss\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-19T15:52:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-01T17:02:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/\"},\"wordCount\":1372,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/files\/2011\/05\/erich1happy-piece2-150x150.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/\",\"name\":\"BEING Happy by Anne K Voss - Many Roads\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/files\/2011\/05\/erich1happy-piece2-150x150.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-05-19T15:52:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-01T17:02:37+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/05\/22152707\/erich1happy-piece2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/05\/22152707\/erich1happy-piece2.jpg\",\"width\":\"568\",\"height\":\"800\",\"caption\":\"Dr. Erich Reisen\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/\",\"name\":\"Many Roads\",\"description\":\"Bodhicharya's e-magazine\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Many Roads\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/05\/22152403\/LOGO.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/05\/22152403\/LOGO.png\",\"width\":506,\"height\":136,\"caption\":\"Many Roads\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BEING Happy by Anne K Voss - Many Roads","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"BEING Happy by Anne K Voss","datePublished":"2011-05-19T15:52:52+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-01T17:02:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/"},"wordCount":1372,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/files\/2011\/05\/erich1happy-piece2-150x150.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/","url":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/","name":"BEING Happy by Anne K Voss - Many Roads","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/files\/2011\/05\/erich1happy-piece2-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2011-05-19T15:52:52+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-01T17:02:37+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/being-happy-by-anne-k-voss\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/05\/22152707\/erich1happy-piece2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2011\/05\/22152707\/erich1happy-piece2.jpg","width":"568","height":"800","caption":"Dr. Erich Reisen"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/","name":"Many Roads","description":"Bodhicharya's e-magazine","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#organization","name":"Many Roads","url":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/05\/22152403\/LOGO.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2wipdjmobk1g8.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/05\/22152403\/LOGO.png","width":506,"height":136,"caption":"Many Roads"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/author\/"}]}},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"shareaholic-thumbnail":false,"gform-image-choice-sm":false,"gform-image-choice-md":false,"gform-image-choice-lg":false,"mailchimp":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/author\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In 2004 I started as a teacher of\u00a0English and Fine Art at a special school in Aachen, Germany.\u00a0 Our school is a night-school where lessons are from 5 to 9.50 p.m and our students are mostly young adults. \u00a0The youngest admitted are 17 years old, the oldest I ever taught were a Russian couple of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}