The Key to Student Well-Being is Joy. Here's Why.

By Maureen Leming

Creating a joyful learning environment is more than just a feel-good goal, it’s a powerful element that contributes to students' overall well-being.

Joy and happiness are often used interchangeably, but psychologists note that there is a difference. Happiness is an emotional response to what’s happening around you, while joy is an underlying state that is not reactionary. Happiness might come when you walk outside to find it’s a sunny, beautiful day. Joy comes from internal motivations, like working toward a goal or purpose. Both are important in the learning environment here at The Hun School, but it’s the word “joyful” that appears in our mission statement – and for good reason.

Why is joy important to us? At Hun, we see joyful learning as a linchpin to growth, academic success, and happiness. And that’s because:

Joy improves academic performance

Students who are happy are more engaged in their work tend to rise to academic challenges and perform better in school. Joy helps foster a balanced educational approach, where learning is fun even when it’s challenging. When students see that academic success and happiness can go hand-in-hand, their internal drive to learn, grow, and succeed strengthens.

Joy increases creativity

When the prevailing emotion in a classroom is joy, students know that they’re in a supportive school environment. This atmosphere keeps students interested while also helping them feel more at ease to think outside the box, express creative ideas, and take academic risks.

Joy helps develop resilience

When students face a challenge from a place of overall happiness and joy, they’re more likely to feel positive about the tough moments, rather than defeated by them. This positive approach helps them navigate challenges, and successfully navigating those challenges helps them develop the resilience they need to face other difficulties in the future, both inside and outside the classroom.

Joy enhances worldview

When learning is joyful, students are more open to the learning experience, and they’re motivated to seek out opportunities to learn and grow. This increased quest for knowledge expands their perspective– and studies show that an expansive worldview increases a person’s joy, creating an ongoing pattern of learning and advancement that they’ll carry with them for life.

Joy deepens connections

When the learning environment is infused with the joy of teachers and students alike, the connections between the cohort deepens. Positive feelings abound, collaboration and teamwork become second nature, and differences are more easily navigated. These interpersonal skills are established in the classroom, but carry on to students’ personal and family lives, and help them navigate relationships with co-workers and bosses in the future.

Joy is contagious

If you’ve ever been in a bad mood around a group of happy people, you know that it’s hard to stay down when everyone around you feels good. Joy is contagious. By being joyful, joy spreads around the Hun campus, and so do the benefits.