Champlain College
IN-24: Innovation A

In June 2018, over 800 people from over 30 countries gathered in Fort Worth, TX for four days to turn inspiration into action at the World Positive Education Accelerator (WPEA). Co-convened by Champlain College’s David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider Center) and the International Positive Education Network (IPEN), the WPEA brought together, educators, students, parents, researchers, policy makers, business leaders, philanthropists, and foundations interested in accelerating education that, in addition to focusing on academic excellence, also imparts the tools and skills that enable wellbeing and human flourishing. Positive Education unites the exciting new science of positive psychology and related disciplines with the study of education’s most promising innovations to enable human flourishing and academic excellence as complementary aims of education. It believes in education of the head and the heart. Its goal is to equip people—students, teachers, school systems, and community partners—with the wellbeing skills and tools to flourish, and contribute to the flourishing of others, in ways that support and strengthen traditional learning. Rigorous studies show that positive education can raise overall levels of curiosity; elevate love of learning; promote heightened engagement; create better learning outcomes; contribute to more thriving learning communities; build more elevated emotions such as hope, inspiration, and joy; generate increases in social intelligence and better relationships; lead to stronger career opportunity and success; support better health and decrease risky behaviors; open minds toward acceptance and inclusion of others; build leadership capacities; and serve as preventative and as a provider of better routes to treatment of depression, despair, or thoughts of suicide than anything pharmacologically. For more detail, see the attached letter.