Happiness is More Important than Achievement, Study Finds

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Achievement is important, and clearly, as modern society becomes more and more aware of the diference an A-school, or Ivy-league university can make to a child's future, parents become more and more obsessed with enrolling their as yet unborn apple of the eye in the highest-losted kindergarten in the hopes that it will lead to later high achievement.

In Parents Value Happiness over Achievement For Their Kids Paul Nyan tells us about a new University of Michigan study that indicates that parents want teachers who make children happy.

The findings in the study, however, mask striking differences across schools. Families in higher poverty schools strongly value student achievement and appear indifferent to the principal's report of a teacher's ability to promote student satisfaction. The results are reversed for families in wealthier schools. read more

I would like to know whether data has been collected on the ultimate success of these children who are being provided with teachers who want to ensure the kids are happy...and I would venture a guess that if the quality of education is comparable, you would very likely find a higher percentage of success stories in the happy group as opposed to the achievement group. What do you think?