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.
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