The School of Life

See also: School of Life (disambiguation)

The School of Life is an organisation founded in 2008 and based in branches in Melbourne, Paris, Amsterdam, Belgrade, Antwerp, Istanbul and London. The School offers a variety of programmes and services concerned with how to live wisely and well: finding fulfilling work, mastering relationships, achieving calm, and understanding and changing the world. [1] The School also offers psychotherapy and bibliotherapy services and runs small shops[2] which have been described as 'apothecaries for the mind'.[3]

The School of Life is not affiliated to any religious, educational, charitable or other organisations. It declares itself to be a place ‘free from dogma’, where participants are ‘directed towards a variety of ideas—from philosophy to literature, psychology to the visual arts—that tickle, exercise and expand your mind’ and where participants can 'meet other curious, sociable and open-minded people in an atmosphere of exploration and enjoyment'.[1]

People

Alain de Botton co-founded The School of Life

The School of Life was founded by philosopher Alain de Botton[2] and Sophie Howarth, a former curator from Tate Modern, in collaboration with a number of writers, artists and educators. It is currently staffed by Morgwn Rimel (Director),Caroline Brimmer, Melissa Byrd and Vassili Christodoulou. The faculty includes philosophers Mark Vernon, Robert Rowland Smith and Nigel Warburton, writers John Armstrong, Charles Fernyhough, John-Paul Flintoff, Catherine Blyth and Rebecca Abrams. Ambassadors for the project include photographer Martin Parr, psychotherapist Brett Kahr, journalist Rosie Boycott and publishers Patrick Walsh and Simon Prosser.

Classes

The School of Life offers evening classes and workshops which are designed to provide useful insights around the big themes in life.[4] These might explore ways to improve relationships or find more satisfaction in one's working life, or even how to be cool.[5] These classes are devised by leading authors, artists, actors and academics, combining their own experiences with ideas from great thinkers of the past to offer participants intelligent and playful ways to interpret the world, and their place within it.[4]

Weekends

The School offers weekends led by writers, artists, economists and scientists to create extraordinary experiences designed to inspire personal journeys, during which participants can learn a new skill or address a particular issue in more depth while providing an opportunity for stimulating reflection and sociable exploration. Topics which have inspired some weekends include photography, reading and finding fulfilment through one's work.[6]

Sermons

On Sunday mornings The School of Life hosts secular sermons in which cultural figures are invited to give their opinion about 'what values we should live by today'.[7] These theatrical events are usually held at Conway Hall in London. Past preachers have included Tom Hodgkinson on Loving Your Neighbour, Geoff Dyer on Punctuality, Sam Roddick on Seduction and Alain de Botton on Pessimism.[8] The Financial Times described the sermons as being 'hedged about with all sorts of ironic paraphernalia, designed to reassure the trendy young audience that they are not about to be harangued by a religious zealot'.[9]

YouTube

The School of Life posts films every week to its YouTube channel on a variety of topics related to the art of living.

Bibliotherapy

The School of Life offers a literary consultation service it calls bibliotherapy.[10] For a fee, people are able to meet with a bibliotherapist who will talk to them about their reading habits and 'prescribe' books which relate to their interests or concerns. The School of Life's bibliotherapists include the novelist Susan Elderkin.

Psychotherapy

The School operates a psychotherapy service run by Professor Brett Kahr, one of Britain’s foremost psychotherapists. Professor Kahr is Senior Clinical Research Fellow in Psychotherapy and Mental Health at the Centre for Child Mental Health in London. He is also a Visiting Clinician and Visiting Lecturer at the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships, at the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology in London, specialising in work with marital couples. He is also a registrant of the British Psychoanalytic Council.

The service is described as offering clients 'a fascinating and valuable tour of your own psyche'[11] and aims to counter the stigma often associated with mental health.

Shop

The School of Life in London is based in a small shop on Marchmont Street in Central London.[2] There are also branches in Paris, Melbourne, Istanbul, Antwerp, Belgrade and Amsterdam. The interior of the London shop is designed by Susanna Edwards and Joseph Harries and features real silver birch trees.[12] The shop sells a range of items produced by The School of Life, including pencils,[2] hour glasses, blankets, book sets and cards. Beneath the shop is the School's classroom[2] muraled throughout by the British fashion illustrator Charlotte Mann.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About Us". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2015-03-07.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Conrad, Peter (1 September 2013). "Life Lessons from... Bergson, Byron, Freud, Hobbes, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "The School of Life [Monocle]". Monocle.com. 2008-09-03. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Classes". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  5. ↑ "Sunday Express Magazine". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  6. ↑ "Weekends". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  7. ↑ "Sermons". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  8. ↑ "Past Sermons". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  9. ↑ Eyres, Harry (2008-12-20). "Secular lessons from the School of Life". FT.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  10. ↑ "Bibliotherapy". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  11. ↑ "Psychotherapy". Theschooloflife.com. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  12. ↑ "Blog Archive » The School of Life by Susanna Edwards". Dezeen. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2012-03-22.

External links