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.
