Is Penn Offering A Masters In Happiness?
July 7, 2010 at 1:04 pm
At first, we laughed at an editorial in The Times of India which asserts that Penn offers a masters in happiness. But then we were like, wait, could this be for real? And how did we not know about it? Well, it is kind of real.
In an editorial piece on "the pursuit of happiness," Sanjiv Kaura explores the notion of "teaching happiness" at universities:
"At Harvard, I stumbled upon a course that addressed questions like: does money bring happiness, does happiness have a favourite sex, does happiness vary by culture? I wondered, could happiness be taught to students?"What inspiring questions! Is there a degree in this, for real? It's unclear if the writer actually attended Harvard, or is just relying on some amateur Googling to find out his info:
"And not surprisingly, there is no dearth of takers. Harvard had to provide an auditorium for the record 700 students that enrolled for studying the happiness course. University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League, is now offering a Masters in happiness."So -- is it true? After some amateur Googling on our part, it turns out that yes, Penn is sort of offering a masters in happiness! According to the Penn Gazette, there's a new masters program at Penn that "is the first master’s degree in positive psychology." Thank you, Times of India, for informing us in vague terms of Penn's newest (and coolest) degree.