unteachable, lying beyond reason and best abandoned to individual instinct.

We are left to find our own path around our unfeasibly complicated minds – a move as

wise as leaving each generation to rediscover the

laws of physics by themselves. But The School of Life believe that the journey

to finding fulfilment begins with self- knowledge, with emotional intelligence.

The emotionally intelligent person is able to introspect and communicate, to read the

moods of others, to relate with patience, charity and imagination to those around them.

The emotionally intelligent person knows how to hope and be grateful, while remaining

steadfast before the essentially tragic structure of existence.

The emotionally intelligent person is committed to fathoming their inadequacies.

There can wisely be no solutions that remove problems altogether. What we can aim for,

at best, is consolation. To believe in consolation

means giving up on cures; it means accepting that life is a hospice rather than a hospital,

but one we'd like to render as comfortable, as

interesting and kind as possible. The School of Life dares to believe that we

might learn, in good time and systematically, what we might otherwise acquire only through

many decades of stumbling. The School of Life teaches us how we can live

a little better through a deeper understanding of:

The Self Others

Our Relationships Our Work

And our Culture If, as a society, we have collectively left

to chance some of what it is most important to

know, if we have denied ourselves the opportunity to systematically transmit wisdom, then

The School of Life is a modest attempt to try to spare us a bit of time.