Laziness, impatience, disorder” – words that are spread out on posters throughout the classroom.

Sarah Guth looks questioningly at the letters on her paper for a moment, then puts her pencil down.

There is a rustle in the room, all 22 participants in the happiness training course for teachers and students at the Engelbert Humperdinck School in Frankfurt are turning their pages.

The quality that everyone has the most personal problems with remains hidden.

When nothing more can be heard, Angela Wanke takes a breath.

"The bazaar of weaknesses is open," says the trainer.

Standing in front of the board, she watches as the participants run at her command and read each other's words.

In several stages it is about showing the others why this weakness might not be a weakness at all.

In which situation the participants would have wished to have been accompanied by the person with exactly this characteristic.

Because even if the quality “lazy” sounds exclusively negative at first glance, it could also mean seeing things more calmly.

"Some exercises take effort, but I always get a good feeling from the seminars," says Guth. After a total of twelve seminar weekends like this one, she is then allowed to teach happiness in addition to her actual subjects of French and biology for teaching at high schools.

The learning objective explained by the developer of the school subject, Ernst Fritz-Schubert, is: well-being.

For him, this includes, above all, strengthening the personality.

In practice, this means, for example, opening yourself up to others through exercises such as the "Bazaar of Weaknesses", getting to know your own strengths better and ultimately acting more independently.

The further training has been offered since 2009 by the non-profit Fritz Schubert Institute in Heidelberg and by various licensees in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In the meantime, around 2,000 teachers and student teachers have received further training – even if happiness is only taught as an independent subject in around 200 schools.

"Knowledge and school must taste bitter" - that has been a widespread notion ever since he began teaching in the 1970s, as Fritz-Schubert says.

Instead, in his opinion, every school must promote appreciative and constructive cooperation: "It is only through positive emotions that I am ready to open up."

A double hour of happiness

But does it need its own school subject?

Shouldn't it be a matter of course to always focus on people at school?

For this very reason, a teacher in Wanke's seminar has doubts that a school subject needs happiness.

For Fritz-Schubert, however, the subject developed by him and a team made up of educators, doctors and sports trainers, among others, can bring a different teaching and learning culture into schools.

As a primary school teacher, Wanke has been teaching happiness in her own class and as part of the religion and science classes at the Engelbert Humperdinck School for four years - even if it's not an official subject for which she has her own hours.

"I'm connected to the kids in a completely different way today — because we're talking about feelings," she says.

"The better the relationship between children and between children and teachers, the more comfortable they feel, the better they can learn and benefit from the content."

After a round of reflection and small exercises, like those intended for the classroom, Wanke distributes four bags of paper handkerchiefs around the room.

The task: compete against each other in groups - and build the tallest tower in the time allotted.

In Guth's group, two people place the packs next to each other, one person keeps adjusting the tower a little.

There is no need for big agreements.

The feedback: "Very harmonious." And: "We knew right away who was doing which task." Wanke looks around the room and grins slightly.

"It's not particularly representative," she says.

One question must now be addressed at school: "Why did you yell at each other?"