Introducing: Ninth-Grade Wellness Course
By Aléwa Cooper
Head of School
We chose to focus on wellness at this year's State of the School because we are deeply concerned about our students and their challenges. The world they are growing up in vastly differs from the one we knew at their age. Some of these changes are exciting—things we could only dream of when watching cartoons like The Jetsons. But with these advancements comes a complexity that our children must navigate, often accompanied by pressures that feel unrelenting. As educators and parents, we guide them with care, equipping them with the tools and resilience they need to thrive.
A few summers ago, I took an online course, through Coursera, called The Science of Well-Being. It was taught by Dr. Laurie Santos at Yale University, modeled after her original course, Psychology and the Good Life. In 2018, it became Yale’s most popular course in more than 300 years—a testament to how universal the desire for well-being truly is. The course provided profound insights, including practical strategies for cultivating happiness and resilience, which have shaped my perspective and reaffirmed the importance of prioritizing wellness as a community.
To that end, we’ve created a seminar series on this topic for our ninth graders to help prepare them. They had their first Wellness Seminar class today, and it has already received positive reviews. We have partnered with Dr. Vlad Chictuc, a postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at Yale University. He’s worked with Dr. Santos on issues surrounding the measurement of happiness, and his current work speaks to topics such as: how we measure perceptual sensations (like taste or brightness) to fuzzier concepts like affective sensations (like happiness) and moral judgment. We are excited that our students can have access to this science at such a formative time in their lives.
At Foote, wellness is more than an ideal; it’s a cornerstone of our mission. That’s why we established Wellness at Our Core as one of our strategic initiatives. Our goal is to develop a comprehensive and integrated health and wellness program that fosters social, emotional, physical, and academic well-being. This initiative is grounded in best practices and current research, and it reflects our commitment to cultivating a community where wellness is not just an aspiration but a marker of institutional effectiveness.
In a few minutes, you’ll have a chance to learn about some of the wellness initiatives that we have developed at Foote already. What you won’t hear much about in the upcoming video, however, is technology — and we know that technology plays an undeniable role in this conversation. While it offers incredible opportunities for learning, connection, and innovation, it also brings challenges that deeply affect both students and parents. From social media pressures to the constant notifications that demand our attention, technology often disrupts the balance essential for emotional and mental well-being.