This week a friend attended a parent-teacher interview to discuss her 6-year-old daughter’s progress in school. The teacher started off not with reading, writing, or maths, but with a comment on her character that would puff up any parent’s chest with pride: her daughter is a delight to have in the classroom.

Is the purpose of education to develop character so that people can lead happy lives? Or is it to develop the academic skills and knowledge that will lead to success and contribute to a healthier national economy? Wait a minute. Surely character development leads to success and happiness?

James O’Shaughnessy, education consultant and previous Director of Policy to British Prime Minister David Cameron, says in The Telegraph “there is a deep dispute about the purpose of education”.  He contrasts the traditional view – to develop academic ability, with the progressive view – to develop character.

Tradition, at its extreme, conjures up images of blackboards and strict teachers drilling facts into obedient and terrified children’s minds. With progressivism, on the other hand, there is a picture of children learning through play, all day, perhaps coming back to the mat every now and then to join hands and sing kumbaya. It’s a false dichotomy. O’Shaughnessy reasons that the “unwillingness on both sides of the argument to accept the validity of the other’s premises has meant we are short-changing our children”.

Holistic development is important in and of itself, but also because it helps with academic success. As O’Shaughnessy explains, research shows that developing traits like optimism, perseverance, compassion and curiosity actually leads to better academic achievement. A recent study in England found that students who were considered ‘buoyant’ – those who agreed with statements like “I don’t let a bad mark affect my confidence”, were less anxious about their exams, and this buoyancy helped them perform better in those exams.

So raising academic standards need not come at the expense of character development. Performance increases with stress, but only up to a certain point; performance then declines when the pressure becomes too much. It takes a highly skilled teacher to achieve the optimal performance, by designing a happy environment while putting the right amount of pressure on kids to keep learning.

Luckily for my friend’s daughter, she has such a teacher. As well as subjects such as art, the teacher went on to report on her reading, writing and maths. These areas are critically important. But the fact that her character was the first thing the teacher mentioned (and was what made her Mum most proud) shows that a policy emphasis on the core subjects does not need to detract from a character-building education.