This paper argues that the concern for students’ wellbeing should be seen as integral to the main objectives of teaching and education. Although student wellbeing has become an increasingly growing concern, and although it is often related to “whole-person” and “whole-school”-approaches, it is still treated mostly as a separate aspect of school life.Wellbeing is crucially important for students’ motivation and learning, across the curriculum, and achieving sufficient wellbeing is a fundamental life goal that calls for cross- and transcurricular teaching. Recent discussions of Bildung have tended to overlook or downplay the importance of subjective wellbeing, though the classical conception emphasizes that acquisition of skills and knowledge must be personally and emotionally satisfying; this is also supported by contemporary theories of flow, self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation. Drawing in part on recent research on the impact of the Covid 19-restrictions on students’ wellbeing, the paper also introduces the notion of wellbeing competence, distinguishing its different components and giving suggestions for how to foster it in the classroom. 

The paper combines philosophical and psychological wellbeing theory, especially theories of wellbeing as value fulfilment and emotional balance (and theories of wellbeing competence), with empirical research on students' well- and ill-being and its relationship to school performance and wider life goals.

Apart from showing that the classical notion of Bildung embodies a concern for wellbeing, and making a general case for student wellbeing as a central, cross- and transcurricular teaching goal, and a integral part of all teaching activities, the paper also argues that stronger and more pervasive focus on student wellbeing need not be an additional, burdensome task for teachers, but can also help strengthening teachers wellbeing (which is also an important, and often neglected, concern).

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