The work of Wendell Berry has had a tremendous influence on my thinking in general, and especially on my thinking about teaching. Comparing Berry's work to others whom I admire, I think the quality that makes his work stand out is its grounding. His work is literally rooted in the earth. This rootedness is a quality of agrarian thought. He makes this point in his essay, "Money Versus Goods": "My economic point of view is from the ground level." So much of what I read about education never touches the ground. Of course, we do need to look at the big picture on occasion, but we must always return to what happens on the ground. Many of the other thinkers I admire never address the practical realities of teaching. Many of them have never taught in a public school. I realize they can't take individual situations into account when writing about curriculum, or methods, or policy, but they must at least acknowledge the problem of application. If they don't, they merely add to the accumulation of well-meant advice. Berry can't address unique ground level problems, either, but he never lets their existence fall from sight.
When I think of using Wendell Berry’s work to help address the current problems of education in America, I think in general rather than specific terms. I’m not talking about including his essays in the curriculum, or about teaching sustainable farming, although both of those things might be useful. I am thinking more about applying the general principles he discusses to education. As a start, I’ll list a few of these principles below.
When I think of using Wendell Berry’s work to help address the current problems of education in America, I think in general rather than specific terms. I’m not talking about including his essays in the curriculum, or about teaching sustainable farming, although both of those things might be useful. I am thinking more about applying the general principles he discusses to education. As a start, I’ll list a few of these principles below.
Reading the Classics
One of the most important elements of Wendell Berry’s work is his defense of the traditional liberal arts. Throughout his work he refers to canonical works and writers such as the Bible, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Herbert, Milton and Blake. To be sure, he frequently discusses the work of contemporary writers and those from recent centuries, but he has a firm grounding in the classics and knows their value. This puts him firmly in line with Bernard Knox, whose work I refer to in the list of core principles.
Wendell Berry discusses the readings that have influenced him on pages 4-5 of Imagination in Place, 2010.
Education as Preservation and Transmission
A related idea to his use of classic literature is the notion of education as the preservation and transmission of what is good and useful in our culture. This stands in stark contrast to progressive education’s focus on “subversion” and disruption. It is also a stark difference from consumer-driven education’s fascination with the new and its reflexive scorn for the past. I don’t want to oversimplify this. No sound thinker promotes uncritical acceptance of tradition. But uncritical acceptance of the present and a technologically-driven future is equally unsound, and far more common these days. This reflexive scorn for the past and uncritical acceptance of the corporate view of the future is widespread. Conservatives might have been expected to stand against this, but they appear to view corporate prerogatives as sacrosanct.
In terms of Wendell Berry’s thinking, what I find interesting and valuable are the parallels between his long focus on preserving and passing on the best in our agricultural tradition, and what we need to be doing in education. The pattern is clear and instructive. To live responsibly, we need to preserve the earth. To preserve the earth, we need to preserve and transmit sound agricultural practices. Likewise, to teach responsibly, we need to preserve and transmit what is valuable about our culture. We cannot do this in a system designed and operated by people with a long history of making profit by destroying these things.
Imposed from Above
Though it was written 20 years ago, this passage sums up my opposition the corporate Ed "Reform" movement pretty well. It is inherently undemocratic. Almost every time I hear Bill Gates talk about the work of his foundation, he refers to the "smart" people who are going to find solutions to our problems. I can't see that happening. The statement below is part of the preface to Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Democracy, "The Joy of Sales Resistance," and it leads into a fruitful list of the truths of the "new commercialized education":
I am more and more impressed by the generality of the assumption that human lives are properly to be invented by an academic-corporate-governmental elite and then either sold to their passive and choiceless recipients or doled out to them in the manner of welfare payments. Any necessary thinking--so the assumption goes--will be done by certified smart people in offices, laboratories, boardrooms, and other high places and then will be handed down to supposedly unsmart people in low places--who will also be expected to do whatever actual work cannot be done by machines.
Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community (xii)
Furthermore
Wendell Berry's work provides the basis for much more discussion, of course. For now I'll say that I find it important because of the context it provides. The work of Diane Ravitch and E.D. Hirsch may bear more directly on current educational policy debates, but Wendell Berry's work serves to place all of this in a larger context. I can think of some educational writers and researchers whose work I find excellent, but who seem to share many of the cultural assumptions that Berry has demolished. Without questioning some of those assumptions, I think we'll never find our way out of this mess.
Farming and Teaching
I find hope in Wendell Berry's example of holding out against seemingly insurmountable odds. These days it seems that public education is under relentless attack. Teachers seem to have become the favorite scapegoats of politicians and business leaders. But farmers have undergone a far longer and much more severe process of elimination. Berry provides an inspiring example of determination and perseverance. And although many things have gotten worse in the decades since he started writing and speaking out against industrialized agriculture, he can rightly point to a great deal of positive change.
Someone I talked with recently commented that if you replace "farming" with "teaching" and "agribusiness" with "modern education," many of Berry's statements still stand true.
Here is an example that occurred to me while reading "A Long Job, Too Late to Quit," from Citizenship Papers.
"We must recognize, moreover, that our [public schooling] can survive only by becoming better than it has ever been, more skillful at meeting the need of both the [students] and the [society]." (80)
I think this is important because I think the best way to oppose corporate control of education is to identify and practice the best methods to achieve the genuine purpose of education in a democracy.
Imposed from Above
Though it was written 20 years ago, this passage sums up my opposition the corporate Ed "Reform" movement pretty well. It is inherently undemocratic. Almost every time I hear Bill Gates talk about the work of his foundation, he refers to the "smart" people who are going to find solutions to our problems. I can't see that happening. The statement below is part of the preface to Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Democracy, "The Joy of Sales Resistance," and it leads into a fruitful list of the truths of the "new commercialized education":
I am more and more impressed by the generality of the assumption that human lives are properly to be invented by an academic-corporate-governmental elite and then either sold to their passive and choiceless recipients or doled out to them in the manner of welfare payments. Any necessary thinking--so the assumption goes--will be done by certified smart people in offices, laboratories, boardrooms, and other high places and then will be handed down to supposedly unsmart people in low places--who will also be expected to do whatever actual work cannot be done by machines.
Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community (xii)
Furthermore
Wendell Berry's work provides the basis for much more discussion, of course. For now I'll say that I find it important because of the context it provides. The work of Diane Ravitch and E.D. Hirsch may bear more directly on current educational policy debates, but Wendell Berry's work serves to place all of this in a larger context. I can think of some educational writers and researchers whose work I find excellent, but who seem to share many of the cultural assumptions that Berry has demolished. Without questioning some of those assumptions, I think we'll never find our way out of this mess.
Farming and Teaching
I find hope in Wendell Berry's example of holding out against seemingly insurmountable odds. These days it seems that public education is under relentless attack. Teachers seem to have become the favorite scapegoats of politicians and business leaders. But farmers have undergone a far longer and much more severe process of elimination. Berry provides an inspiring example of determination and perseverance. And although many things have gotten worse in the decades since he started writing and speaking out against industrialized agriculture, he can rightly point to a great deal of positive change.
Someone I talked with recently commented that if you replace "farming" with "teaching" and "agribusiness" with "modern education," many of Berry's statements still stand true.
Here is an example that occurred to me while reading "A Long Job, Too Late to Quit," from Citizenship Papers.
"We must recognize, moreover, that our [public schooling] can survive only by becoming better than it has ever been, more skillful at meeting the need of both the [students] and the [society]." (80)
I think this is important because I think the best way to oppose corporate control of education is to identify and practice the best methods to achieve the genuine purpose of education in a democracy.
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