According to recent research children are going to need to be taught how to be happy and that this should pervade all subjects on the curriculum.
Professor Layard recommends children should be taught to:
care more about other people than themselves
not constantly compare themselves with other people
choose goals which stretch them but are attainable
challenge negative thoughts by focusing on the positive.
He suggests that this is not just a new education programme but something which should reverse the modern culture of consumerism, competition and interest in celebrity.
How this could happen in the modern classroom, riddled with testing and individual achievement I find difficult to answer. It would mean a huge shift in teaching styles and certainly for the better! But I certainly feel that what he has to say is for the most part true, and gets to the real reason why many parents feel the need to home school their children.