Previous research shows that most students are happy with their schooling but not all (Brantley, Huebner,& Nagle, 2002; Ivens, 2007; McCullough & Huebner, 2003; Rask, Åstedt-Kurki, Tarkka,& Laippala, 2002, Uusitalo-Malmivaara et al., in press). Dissatisfaction with school is associated with various problems with the school and parents, and psychological and physical symptoms such as depression, headaches and fatigue (Rask et al. 2002). Finnish school children have performed remarkably well on international academic school assessments, scoring highest, for instance, in the Programme for International School Assessment (PISA, Hautamäki et al., 2008). But are they happy? Moreover, is the happiness in school context associated with the students’ global happiness? What do children think would make them happier? Are these choices related to school? The goal of the present study was to answer these vital but little examined questions. The study of children’s and youth’s well-being has lagged behind the study of adults. However, research on children and adults seems to progress in a similar manner: after a long period of focus directed mainly at psychopathology, issues of positive psychology appear to attract more interest.

It is assumed that good education equips children with skills and strengths that make life more satisfactory and it is also assumed that education eases coping with obstacles which the children will encounter. Thus, it is believed that education increases children’s happiness (Hartog, 1998).

Unfortunately, little or no correlation has been found between the level of education and happiness; for instance, Veenhoven (2010) found that high school and university graduates are about equally happy. Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter (2003) revealed that teenagers’ happiness decreased while they were studying. However, the amount of time spent in school-related activities over a week correlated positively with happiness. Optimally, children should be happy while being educated, not only on the weekends or after leaving the school benches. Moreover, enjoyment of school is related to the demonstration of competencies and school performance (Shernoff & Csikszentmihalyi, 2009).

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