"We all think we know what will make us happy—and it’s always something on the other side of the road, past the next milestone in our lives, or around the next bend." How does that sound for the beginning of a course syllabus?

English teachers Mary Veith, Stella Schindler, Leonor Ponzio, Mia Mason, Christine McGovern, Jane Hannon, and Laurie Quirk, as well as Spanish teacher Sarah Monnerat, currently participate in an Executive Seminar through St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. This course focuses on the concept of Happiness. Schindler, who received her Master’s Degree from the St. John’s Great Books Program, suggested the idea of taking this course and invited the teachers to participate.

St. John’s College offers these "Annapolis Executive Seminars," which, according to the syllabus, "address fundamental questions of the human condition through a close reading and discussion of timeless great works of literature, philosophy, and political discourse." For each class, about 20 students meet with faculty members called tutors to discuss the work they have just finished reading. During the class, students may not bring in any outside information but must strictly discuss only the text at hand. These seminars differ from regular college courses in that adults and other professionals are the students, instead of college-aged men and women.

The class typically meets the second Wednesday of each month in the Gold Room of the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. to discuss the latest reading. The course runs from September until June. A class typically lasts 90 minutes.

Hannon said, "I joined because I was interested in the idea of reading texts from a variety of different time periods, perspectives, and cultures, and seeing how we could revisit these texts, many of which we have read in the past, from an adult perspective." The teachers, back in the position of new students, felt a bit apprehensive before the first class. Veith said, "It’s so good to be back in the classroom. I was a little intimidated at first, but I found that different conversations prompt different thoughts, and so we all can add to the conversation."

Mason said, "Although we are not working for a grade, we are working hard for our own sense of pride."

"As teachers, we are lifelong learners," said McGovern. After participating in a class over the summer on the adaptations of two Charles Dickens’ novels, A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield, she said, "Keeping up with the heavy reading load was easier as I had read all of the books before the course began, but writing the paper for the final project revived my sympathy for students."

At the beginning of each class, the tutor proposes a complex question about the work that the class has just read. For the next hour and a half, the students discuss and debate the question and the work at hand. "The idea," Monnerat said, "is that we are all working together to arrive at a meaning."

The teachers appreciate the familiar Socratic Seminar-style discussions during each class. "I think the best way to learn," said Ponzio, "is through questioning each other, hearing each other’s opinions, and asking the hard questions."

Currently, the teachers are studying the moral essay "On the Happy Life" written by the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca. In the past, they read Jane Austen’s "Persuasion," Sophocles’ "Oedipus at Colonus," and "Bhagavad Gita" by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. They have yet to delve into Aristotle’s "Ethics," Thomas Aquinas’s "Treatise on Happiness," William Shakespeare’s "As You Like It," Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s "Discourse on the Origin of Inequality," and Walt Whitman’s "Song of Myself."

Quirk said, "I am so impressed with the depth of introspection of the ancient writers. For thousands of years people have wrestled with philosophical questions that deal with the meaning of life and the path to happiness. Our culture today, which seems to rely so heavily on pleasure instead of happiness, doesn’t understand what these great writers have an understanding of."

Several teachers have translated their course discussions into the classroom here. Schindler, Veith, Ponzio, and Hannon all noticed how they read Sophocles’ "Oedipus at Colonus" shortly before they started "Antigone" in their own sophomore classrooms. Ponzio said that now that she has read all three Theban plays, "Antigone," "Oedipus the King," and now "Oedipus at Colonus," she can better understand the characters of Antigone and Oedipus. Veith said that now, after reading the play, she can better connect the stories and see Sophocles’ different takes on suffering.

Schindler said that bringing the ideas she has learned from the course into her classroom would allow her to, "foster in [my] students a greater sense of wonder about the world."

Some teachers have detected how their idea of happiness, or their approach to the study of happiness, has changed. Veith said, "I now think about happiness from a more philosophical point of view. Thus far, I’ve learned about happiness by learning about tragedy. We’ve looked at absences of happiness in literature."

McGovern said, "Reading the great Indian epic, Bhagavad Gita, demonstrated the importance of fulfilling one’s duty as a means to achieving a sense of peace.  Finding a sense of balance, or ‘equanimity,’ seems to reverberate throughout works chosen for the seminar, as the definition of happiness."

"These works aren’t specifically about happiness or finding pleasure," said Quirk. "They are more about finding an inner experience of acceptance, that you are made for something more than a momentary pleasure."