School teaches young people much of what they need to know when it comes to theoretical notions and rules. Students learn humanistic and scientific subjects during their time in school to build up their general knowledge, but as they grow up, it becomes apparent that this knowledge is not enough. The rational knowledge they acquire should also be accompanied by emotional knowledge.
What are emotions? How do they show themselves and why and when do they come into play? Children and young adults don’t study emotions at school, and many of them don’t talk about emotions at home. The lucky ones learn about their emotions from experience.
Sometimes people are made aware of their emotions for the first time following a painful experience such as a separation or some kind of failure. What emerges from these negative experiences is that “feeling” is often completely detached from “knowing”, and when this happens, a new level of awareness is usually triggered.
In times of crisis, or when big change happens, a person is able to finally give a name to those emotions that (for many different reasons) had remained hidden until then.
Alain de Botton believes that emotional education should be a priority in schools because those who understand their emotions go on to live full and happy lives. They learn how to find and keep love, to manage a career and bounce back from the ups and downs of the working world without becoming overwhelmed by them. Above all, people who are emotionally mature believe in their abilities and are able to manage the guilt and shame often associated with many different situations in life.
Emotional education should be a subject on the school curriculum, so that children are able to think more clearly, and their lives can flow more smoothly. This was the thinking that led to the establishment of The London School of Life; two seemingly contradictory words, school, and life, both an expression of hope and a somewhat provocative message. The goal of the School of Life is to impart essential knowledge, usually learned through experience, in the form of systematic study.
