Education for a Beautiful Life

Education is marked by conflicting demands and expectations from the state, society and individuals. Views on what education and schooling should achieve are numerous and vary across time and place. However, one recurring hope of people as human beings, this book argues, is to live a good and perhaps even a ‘beautiful life’. Drawing on Wilhelm Schmid’s notion of the art of living, this book explores how an Education for a Beautiful Life can make a meaningful contribution to some of today’s complex conversations, such as (student) wellbeing, social equity, equal educational opportunity, individual and social good, and the purposes, aims and goals of education and schooling.

Written during a time of increasing challenges due to rapid technological innovation, shifting political landscapes, global migration, and changing work requirements, this book offers new insights into the question of what education is, and what it can do to help people navigate the challenges of our time by developing their own art of living and pursuing the hope of a good and beautiful life.