Everyone is suddenly talking about the teaching of happiness, well-being or “positive psychology”. When my school, Wellington College, announced last year it was to teach happiness, in partnership with the new Institute of Well-being at the University of Cambridge, it aroused admiration and ire in equal measure. From September, South Tyneside will begin teaching children aged between 10 and 14 skills to ward off depression. David Cameron, leader of Britain’s Conservatives, last week announced that his party is going to deliver the “politics of happiness”. At Harvard, classes in happiness have proved the most popular choice among undergraduates. Geelong Grammar School in Australia starts teaching well-being from the next academic year. Floods of businesses, including McKinsey, are asking how they can teach well-being to their employees.

The rightwing UK press and the Campaign for Real Education have reacted apoplectically, arguing that this is replacing traditional education with psycho-babble and liberal mush. A recent editorial comment in the Financial Times also said well-being cannot and should not be taught. A London headmaster was quoted recently in these columns saying teaching happiness was “impractical and undesirable” and asked: “If we are to have lessons on happiness, which subjects are to be dropped from the curriculum?”