The Art of Humane Education

New
Hardcover
2002
$51.13

In The Art of Humane Education, Donald Phillip Verene presents a new statement of the classical and humanist ideals that he believes should guide education in the liberal arts and sciences. These ideals are lost, he contends, in the corporate atmosphere of the contemporary university, with its emphasis on administration, faculty careerism, and student performance. Verene addresses questions of how and what to teach and offers practical suggestions for the conduct of class sessions, the relationship between teacher and student, the interpretation of texts, and the meaning and use of a canon of great books.In sharp contrast to the current tendency toward specialization, Verene considers the aim of college education to be self-knowledge pursued through study of all fields of thought. Education, in his view, must be based on acquisition of the arts of reading, writing, and thinking. He regards the class lecture as a form of oratory that should be presented in accordance with the well-known principles of rhetoric. The Art of Humane Education, styled as a series of letters, makes the author's original and practical ideas very clear. In this elegant book, Verene explores the full range of issues surrounding humane education.On the humanities: Despite Descartes, the study of humane letters has remained, but it is always in danger of passing out of the curriculum. It remains a beggar who will not quite leave the premises. On teaching: Like oratory, teaching requires a natural gift, but it is also an art which, like all the other humane arts, can be learned only mimetically.... As some are born tone-deaf and cannot be musical, there are those who can never teach. But most if they wish have some aptitude for it, and this aptitude can be developed into an art. On teachers: Teachers motivated by eloquence attempt to speak wholly on a subject, since the whole is where its life is. Teachers not motivated by eloquence tend to be either dull or comedic. The dull teacher may have knowledge but have no true language for it.... The comedic teacher is shallow and a menace to the subject matter. On administrators: Administration is never content simply to concern itself with the pure business of the university, paying its bills, maintaining its buildings. It sees itself as necessary in order for the process between teacher and student to go on. But it is a process that it constantly interrupts.... Administrators, however, should not be taken too seriously. Although sharply critical of many aspects of the modern university and of many currents within the humanities, The Art of Humane Education remains at heart a ringing endorsement of the high humanist tradition and its continuing relevance to the institutions of teaching and learning.

Synopsis

In The Art of Humane Education, Donald Phillip Verene presents a new statement of the classical and humanist ideals that he believes should guide education in the liberal arts and sciences. These ideals are lost, he contends, in the corporate atmosphere of the contemporary university, with its emphasis on administration, faculty careerism, and student performance. Verene addresses questions of how and what to teach and offers practical suggestions for the conduct of class sessions, the relationship between teacher and student, the interpretation of texts, and the meaning and use of a canon of great books.In sharp contrast to the current tendency toward specialization, Verene considers the aim of college education to be self-knowledge pursued through study of all fields of thought. Education, in his view, must be based on acquisition of the arts of reading, writing, and thinking. He regards the class lecture as a form of oratory that should be presented in accordance with the well-known principles of rhetoric. The Art of Humane Education, styled as a series of letters, makes the author's original and practical ideas very clear. In this elegant book, Verene explores the full range of issues surrounding humane education.On the humanities: Despite Descartes, the study of humane letters has remained, but it is always in danger of passing out of the curriculum. It remains a beggar who will not quite leave the premises. On teaching: Like oratory, teaching requires a natural gift, but it is also an art which, like all the other humane arts, can be learned only mimetically.... As some are born tone-deaf and cannot be musical, there are those who can never teach. But most if they wish have some aptitude for it, and this aptitude can be developed into an art. On teachers: Teachers motivated by eloquence attempt to speak wholly on a subject, since the whole is where its life is. Teachers not motivated by eloquence tend to be either dull or comedic. The dull teacher may have knowledge but have no true language for it.... The comedic teacher is shallow and a menace to the subject matter. On administrators: Administration is never content simply to concern itself with the pure business of the university, paying its bills, maintaining its buildings. It sees itself as necessary in order for the process between teacher and student to go on. But it is a process that it constantly interrupts.... Administrators, however, should not be taken too seriously. Although sharply critical of many aspects of the modern university and of many currents within the humanities, The Art of Humane Education remains at heart a ringing endorsement of the high humanist tradition and its continuing relevance to the institutions of teaching and learning.

$51.13

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 98
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 01 Aug 2002
ISBN 10: 0801440394
ISBN 13: 9780801440397

Media Reviews

The leitmotif that runs through Verene's delightful book is the contrast between descriptive observations about most higher education curricula today and his own prescriptive judgments about what they should be if a truly humane education is to be achieved. This book provides a special treat for humanists already dismayed by the current curricular trends in higher education. By his own admission, Verene's letters are The meditations of a humanist who sees himself in an inhumane world?.... Verene's little book is a gem for its reminder of timeless truths.

-- John G. Trapani, Jr., Walsh University * Review of Metaphysics *

Donald Phillip Verene is disenchanted, but I do not believe he is alienated. His passion, which is relentless and which keeps his pen sharp, is rooted in hope rather than being a symptom of despair. His 'no!' to the evaporation of humanistic traditions is actually an affirmation of those traditions still part of his marrow. Beneath the critiques is a celebration of the humanities' endurance.

-- Carl B. Straub, Bates College

Professor Verene has given us a rare statement on the purpose of The Art of Humane Education and it should be obvious that I was moved, instructed and delighted by it.... If for no other reason than to call attention to these fundamental elements-the subject matter, the teacher and the student-Professor Verene's book should be placed in hands of all practicing and prospective teachers and anyone else who has a stake in pedagogy.

-- Anthony Roda * Educational Change *

The Art of Humane Education is an excellent statement of how education suffers when the modern university is no longer a community of scholars but a corporation in which power is held by those least concerned about the aims of education.

-- John E. Smith, Yale University

This is a vital and radically important book. Donald Phillip Verene engages education in the humanities at the most fundamental level and does so in language that is both clear and profound. The Art of Humane Education addresses major issues-tradition, cultural change, the idea of a canon, the differences between the humanities and the sciences, practical problems in teaching-and does so in a way that achieves earned wisdom.

-- James Engell, Harvard University

Verene wields a sharp pen when it comes to beating back assaults on the canon or exposing misuses of the classroom.

-- Sanford Pinsker * Virginia Quarterly Review *

Author Bio

Donald Phillip Verene is Charles Howard Candler Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy and Director of the Institute for Vico Studies at Emory University and a fellow of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. He is the author of books including Vico's New Science : A Philosophical Commentary; Vico's Science of Imagination; and The Art of Humane Education; and he is the coeditor of Giambattista Vico: Keys to the New Science , all from Cornell.