Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place

by Jack R. Baker, Jeffrey Bilbro, Wendell Berry (Foreword by)

Overview

Prominent author and cultural critic Wendell Berry is well known for his contributions to agrarianism and environmentalism, but his commentary on education has received comparatively little attention. Berry has been eloquently unmasking America's cultural obsession with restless mobility for decades, arguing that it causes damage to both the land and the character of our communities. Education, he maintains, plays a central role in this obsession, inculcating in students' minds the American dream of moving up and moving on.

Drawing on Berry's essays, fiction, and poetry, Jack R. Baker and Jeffrey Bilbro illuminate the influential thinker's vision for higher education in this pathbreaking study. Each chapter begins with an examination of one of Berry's fictional narratives and then goes on to consider how the passage inspires new ways of thinking about the university's mission. Throughout, Baker and Bilbro argue that instead of training students to live in their careers, universities should educate students to inhabit and serve their places. The authors also offer practical suggestions for how students, teachers, and administrators might begin implementing these ideas.

Baker and Bilbro conclude that institutions guided by Berry's vision might cultivate citizens who can begin the work of healing their communities—graduates who have been educated for responsible membership in a family, a community, or a polity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813169026
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	06/13/2017
Series:	Culture of the Land
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jack R. Baker is associate professor of English at Spring Arbor University. Jeffrey Bilbro, assistant professor of English at Spring Arbor University, is the author of Loving God's Wildness: The Christian Roots of Ecological Ethics in American Literature.

Table of Contents

Foreword xi

Introduction: An Education for Health and Homecoming 1

Part 1 Rooting Universities

1 Imagining the Tree of Wisdom: The Recovery of the University 25

2 Standing by Our Words: Learning a Responsible Language 47

3 Doing Good Work: Enacting Our Imagination 70

Part 2 Cultivating Virtues of Place

Introduction to Part 2 91

4 Tradition: Remembering Our Story 95

5 Hierarchy: Practicing Gratitude and Respecting Limits 116

6 Geography: Reaping the Fruits of Fidelity 140

7 Community: Learning to Love the Membership 166

Conclusion: Doing Work that Sustains Hope 191

Afterword: The Authors and Their Stories 195

Acknowledgments 199

Notes 201

Bibliography 231

Index 245

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"lkngrelknw/elknrbs" — Cameron Ludwick

Editorial Reviews

04/24/2017
Two literary critics take the writings and speeches of Wendell Berry as a touchstone for a critique of higher education. Each chapter follows a tight structure: an analysis of Berry’s fiction; discussion of how the themes of his fiction apply to higher-education reform; practical suggestions for students, instructors, and administrators; and an excerpt from Berry’s poetry that brings each chapter to a close. The book’s first three chapters, which together encompass the book’s first part, titled “Rooting Universities,” possess both charm and utility. They describe a new vision for higher education, one in which imagination and context trump specialization and fragmentation, attention is given to logical language that eschews jargon and is inclusive of all types of people and ideas, and the benefits of physical work contribute to intellectual development. As the book moves into its second part, “Cultivating Virtues of Place,” its conceit is more cumbersome. The connection between Berry’s work and the concepts of tradition, hierarchy, geography, and community—such as how Burley Coulter’s infidelity relates to the need “for educational institutions to be faithful members of their places”—requires pages of explanation, so much so as to undermine earlier arguments. Aside from these shortcomings, the authors present an enlightening interpretation of Wendell Berry’s philosophy for the pursuit of a holistic higher education. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Baker and Bilbro have written a thoughtful treatise about conceptualizing and implementing education as grounded, embedded wisdom formation rather than as instruction in dislocated knowledge acquisition. The primary enticement of this text is the interweaving of Wendell Berry's poetry, fiction, and non-fiction writings into the process. This is a text for educators and citizens willing to take a hard look at current higher education's pedagogical proclivities and ask whether we might not often be increasing socio-cultural harm rather than promoting good when we do not encourage that learning be tied to the particularity of place. Baker and Bilbro have written this work hoping to increase focus on learning that emphasizes social stability over social itinerancy.

International Journal of Christianity & Education

Wendell Berry and Higher Education offers a helpful and much-needed counternarrative to the pragmatic visions of higher education that dominate the current discussion. Works like this are essential for finding a way forward in a time marked by the arrogance of Wall Street, the failure of political discourse, and educational practices that hide more problems than they address.

Matt Bonzo

Baker and Bilbro encourage readers to think of alternatives to the standard way we esteem higher education, careers, and success. [They] do admirable work of applying Berry to the Leviathan of higher education.

Front Porch Republic

Baker and Bilbro do a fine job pointing out the ways in which imagination, work, and language can become portals for learning the art of caring for our places. With a swift burst of energy and clarity, the authors show how Berry affirms the virtues of place through tradition (remembering our story), hierarchy (practicing gratitude and respecting limits), geography (reaping the fruits of fidelity), and community (learning to love the membership).

Spirituality & Practice

This book is a profound, expansive treatment of Wendell Berry's thought applied in a particular context. In this frame, the book serves as a helpful introduction to the vast writing works of Wendell Berry. For those largely unfamiliar with his work, this book can be a helpful place to start. This is especially true of Berry's holistic economic philosophy, to which he refers as The Great Economy, a complex and rich vision of holistic communal flourishing. In a competitive market, where college campuses engage in expensive marketing campaigns, amenities arm races, and cutthroat discounting to recruit students, Wendell Berry and Higher Education raises critical questions for higher education leaders. Those looking for a catalyst for deep conversations on the role of higher education within the fabric of local communities and economics, this is a provocative read.

Englewood Review of Books

A masterful argument. Baker and Bilbro have given us a brilliant companion to Berry's work that will guide readers—students, parents, professors, and administrators—to rethink educational values and institutional trajectories.

Morris A. Grubbs

Baker and Bilbro do admirable work of applying Berry to the Leviathan of higher education.

Ordained Servant

Within the classroom, Bilbro and Baker remind those at the lectern that we need not encourage every student to shoot for the stars. Shooting for the county may well result in a better life, and a better world.

First Things

"Baker and Bilbro encourage readers to think of alternatives to the standard way we esteem higher education, careers, and success. [They] do admirable work of applying Berry to the Leviathan of higher education." -- Front Porch Republic

"Baker and Bilbro have written a thoughtful treatise about conceptualizing and implementing education as grounded, embedded wisdom formation rather than as instruction in dislocated knowledge acquisition. The primary enticement of this text is the interweaving of Wendell Berry's poetry, fiction, and non-fiction writings into the process.This is a text for educators and citizens willing to take a hard look at current higher education's pedagogical proclivities and ask whether we might not often be increasing socio-cultural harm rather than promoting good when we do not encourage that learning be tied to the particularity of place. Baker and Bilbro have written this work hoping to increase focus on learning that emphasizes social stability over social itinerancy." -- International Journal of Christianity & Education

"This book is a profound, expansive treatment of Wendell Berry's thought applied in a particular context. In this frame, the book serves as a helpful introduction to the vast writing works of Wendell Berry. For those largely unfamiliar with his work, this book can be a helpful place to start. This is especially true of Berry's holistic economic philosophy, to which he refers as The Great Economy, a complex and rich vision of holistic communal flourishing.In a competitive market, where college campuses engage in expensive marketing campaigns, amenities arm races, and cutthroat discounting to recruit students, Wendell Berry and Higher Education raises critical questions for higher education leaders. Those looking for a catalyst for deep conversations on the role of higher education within the fabric of local communities and economics, this is a provocative read." -- Englewood Review of Books

"Within the classroom, Bilbro and Baker remind those at the lectern that we need not encourage every student to shoot for the stars. Shooting for the county may well result in a better life, and a better world." -- First Things

"Baker and Bilbro do a fine job pointing out the ways in which imagination, work, and language can become portals for learning the art of caring for our places. With a swift burst of energy and clarity, the authors show how Berry affirms the virtues of place through tradition (remembering our story), hierarchy (practicing gratitude and respecting limits), geography (reaping the fruits of fidelity), and community (learning to love the membership)." -- Spirituality & Practice

"Baker and Bilbro do admirable work of applying Berry to the Leviathan of higher education." -- Ordained Servant

"The authors present an enlightening interpretation of Wendell Berry's philosophy for the pursuit of a holistic higher education. " -- Publishers Weekly

" Wendell Berry and Higher Education offers a helpful and much-needed counternarrative to the pragmatic visions of higher education that dominate the current discussion. Works like this are essential for finding a way forward in a time marked by the arrogance of Wall Street, the failure of political discourse, and educational practices that hide more problems than they address." -- Matt Bonzo, coauthor of Wendell Berry and the Cultivation of Life: A Reader's Guide

"A masterful argument. Baker and Bilbro have given us a brilliant companion to Berry's work that will guide readers -- students, parents, professors, and administrators -- to rethink educational values and institutional trajectories." -- Morris A. Grubbs, editor of Conversations with Wendell Berry

From the Publisher