The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal

by Parker J. Palmer, Arthur Zajonc, Megan Scribner

A call to advance integrative teaching and learning in higher education. From Parker Palmer, best-selling author of The Courage to Teach, and Arthur Zajonc, professor of physics at Amherst College and director of the academic program of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, comes this call to revisit the roots and reclaim the vision of higher education. The Heart of Higher Education proposes an approach to teaching and learning that honors the whole human being--mind, heart, and spirit--an essential integration if we hope to address the complex issues of our time. The book offers a rich interplay of analysis, theory, and proposals for action from two educators and writers who have contributed to developing the field of integrative education over the past few decades.Presents Parker Palmer's powerful response to critics of holistic learning and Arthur Zajonc's elucidation of the relationship between science, the humanities, and the contemplative traditions Explores ways to take steps toward making colleges and universities places that awaken the deepest potential in students, faculty, and staff Offers a practical approach to fostering renewal in higher education through collegiality and conversation The Heart of Higher Education is for all who are new to the field of holistic education, all who want to deepen their understanding of its challenges, and all who want to practice and promote this vital approach to teaching and learning on their campuses.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Academic, Teaching, School

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 17, 2010

About the author

Parker J. Palmer (Madison, WI) is a writer, teacher and activist whose work speaks deeply to people in many walks of life. Author of eight books--including the bestsellers Courage to Teach, Let Your Life Speak, and A Hidden Wholeness--his writing has been recognized with ten honorary doctorates and many national awards, including the 2010 William Rainey Harper Award (previously won by Margaret Mead, Paulo Freire, and Elie Wiesel). He is founder and senior partner of the Center for Courage Renewal, and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Reviews

[Peaches · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked it well enough, as it advocates for putting the personal back in education. Some of the theory was heavy and there were less curricular examples than structural changes within a system, but I'll get behind anything that emphasized imaginative learning.

[Jeri Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've become a follower of Parker Palmer's essays at the On Being website. Dig reading his words every week. So, when I saw that he had written "The Heart of Higher Education," I plucked it up to read for work to see if I could glean any insight into this idea of heart and renewal.

The answer is yes.

I work as the senior writer for a local university, and in between assignments, I'd dive into "The Heart." The bottom line? I liked it. It got a little wonky in places. Still, it'll work your brain. And that works for me. It's a collection of essays by both Palmer, his co-author Arthur Zajonc and professors and administrators from various universities, colleges and community colleges nationwide. It's a patchwork quilt of ideas that is a clear-eyed analysis of what they believe needs to happen with colleges and universities nationwide.

It's what I hear often on my campus -- this call for holistic education, this idea of educating the whole student and singing the hallelujahs of the liberal arts. Some would call it utopian and ask, "Is that even going to get my kid a job?"

Yes, Palmer and Zajonc would say. But then, they'd offer other reasons that feel a bit bigger than dollars and cents.

In the book's afterword, they write: “Educate our students as whole people, and they will bring all of who they are to the demands of being human in private and public life. The present and future well-being of humankind asks nothing less of us.”

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Palmer and Zajonc have a way of putting into words everything for which the field of student affairs strives. This book is a call to action for institutes of higher education to do a better job of educating the whole student - not just the intellect, but the heart and soul of our students, as well. This is a book every higher ed professional should read.

[Jena Eberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this work to be inspiring and engaging, personally and professionally. I use it as a resource often for my graduate classes and for presentation in my assistantship. I would HIGHLY recommend this work for anyone interested in higher education.

[Eric Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A inspirational push for integrative education in the higher education context, asking "How can higher education become a more multi-dimensional enterprise, one that draws on the full range of human capacities for knowing, teaching, and learning; that bridges the gaps between the disciplines; that forges stronger links between knowing the world and living creatively in it, in solitude and community?" Half of the chapters are written by Parker Palmer and the other by Arthur Zajonc. This leaves the book a bit disjointed at times, and is written more as a collection of essays than a cohesive whole. Palmer and Zajonc present many of the issues and challenges in the current higher educational context, and stress moving toward a integrative context to address these issues. The end the book (about a third of the book) includes various examples of this in place written by various higher education educators. Knowing the challenges of reform in higher education, the authors advocate for a grassroots approach starting with on campus conversations. I appreciate their push for values-based, spiritually infused education, although am curious if all recommendations would work in larger contexts beyond individuals applying this in their own classrooms.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty good! I found the appendix section the most helpful. The author gives concrete creative ideas to implement at your institution. It was an easy read and informative! I recommend giving this book a try.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just okay as a book for me. Not much in the way of inspiration.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book the second time through. The narrator of the audiobook was terrible, however, regularly mispronouncing words and names, distracting from the content.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to see the connection with mysticism and even the edges of the occult.

[Bailey L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some good nuggets. Integrative education seems like a fancier way of saying holistic education, which I think embodies what us reformers are trying to do more overtly.

Arthur's chapters were harder to read, especially towards the beginning, and truthfully I skimmed over some of his large vocab sections on physics and other highly theoretical topics. I'm an S on myers briggs, so I latch onto the practical, applicable, concrete. As such, below are the important and highly useful pieces to anyone who is interested in higher ed reform:

The book is summed up from this one short line: The real question is whether we want higher education to be about life.

or expanded upon, is asking:

Do current education efforts address the whole human being - mind body spirit - in ways that best contribute to our future on this fragile planet? What steps can we take to make our colleges and universities places that awaken the deepest potential in students, faculty, and staff?

This is my favorite idea from the book that encapsulates my worldview with my vocation:

If I were to ask, what should be at the center of our teaching and our student's learning, what would you respond? Of the many tasks that we as educators take up, what, in your view, is the most important task of all? what is our greatest hope for the young people we teach? Franz Kappus said: "To take love seriously and to bear and to learn it like a task, that is what [young] people need… for one human being to love another, that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but a preparation. For this reason, young people, who are beginners in everything, cannot yet know love; they have to learn it. With their whole being, wit hall their forces, gathered close around their lonely, timid, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love."

Long after [the students] forget the content they learned, who they have become will endure and determine much of the character and quality of their contribution to society and the personal satisfaction they take in life.

These are the big picture lines I think best sum up the ideas of the book. The authors also made valuable points about involving faculty and alumni in the reform and about the importance of reflection. I could talk more about these topics, but I will leave that for the papers I write in my grad program :)

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zajonc finds fault in many scientists who specialize in one limited fraction of the world, study it until it is mastered, and gather awards and recognition for their small scale discoveries in our large scale world. Although the world is made up of parts, these parts are in constant contact with each other, creating reactions and experiences. The actions of one cell in a human being may shed light on how our physical bodies evolved, but do little in encompassing the creativity and conscious thought which comprises every human’s mind. The development of the human mind is something that can be traced biologically, to a point. Experiences are unscientific in many degrees, and even the most minor can go unaccounted for, but can have large effects on the human mind. Focusing on reducing the human to their smallest components in the hopes of discovering how the conscious developed from instinctual animal reflexology seems to be a dead end from Zajonc’s point of view, as it denotes the importance of experiences in daily life which mold a human’s mind, and instead sees only the biology which brought our human bodies to our current state of development. Studying the firing of a synapse does little to explain the large range of human emotions or thoughts, and only through a collaboration of reductionism and experience can a balance be found.

"What was outside us is now internalized. Inwardly we assume the shape, dynamic, and meaning of the contemplated object. We are, in a word, transformed by experience in accord with the object of contemplation. The individual is developed, or we could say is sculpted, through the above practices."

Thought-provoking book that really made me depressed for most of my generation, as the music, television, and movies they are constantly internalizing are definitely not molding them into an "ideally educated person." So glad I took this class, though I'm ready for summer for some reading of my own accord!

[Reid Mccormick · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Universities have forgotten their main purpose, which is to help students `learn who they are, to search for a larger purpose for their lives, and to leave college as better human beings.'"

"The students are not soulless, but the university is."

"We need to stop releasing our students into the wild without systematically challenging them to take an inner as well as an outer journey."

There was a time not long ago when people purchased a house for a simple reason, to live in it. They were thinking about their family and the memories they would make in a new home. They certainly were not concerned about a return on investment and flipping the home at the right time.

There was also a time not long ago when people obtained a college education to learn and find a purposeful career. They were thinking about changing the world and creating a promising future. They certainly were not concerned about a return on investment or having a higher salary than their less-educated counterparts.

The real estate world has seen its fair share of troubles and higher education has experienced its fair share of criticisms. Getting back the very nature of higher education is essential.

Parker Palmer and Arthur Zajonc have written another volume into the advancement of higher education. The authors call for an integrative education. They call for an education that incorporates the whole person: intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and so forth.

The book is very philosophical. Palmer and Zajonc present very articulate yet very idealistic perspectives. They attempt to balance the idealism with practical, real life examples found throughout campuses across the nation.

Though I love the book's message, I found myself easily distracted while reading. This may be a symptom of summer busy-ness, but I never felt attached to the book. Unfortunately, this is now a trend for me when it comes to Palmer's writings, apparently he is not my style.

[Charity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I wasn't really impressed with this book, despite having heard a great deal about its merits through professional listservs. Several universities are studying this book as an all-campus read. As with The Courage to Teach, I appreciated Palmer's philosophical perspective related to teaching holistically, but I struggled to see the more pragmatic approaches to his argument. What exactly was I to do with the information? It's true that we, as faculty, should have more transformative conversations, but the book does not necessarily outline how to go about doing so. I will say that moving from teaching at a Jesuit institution that fully embraces cura personalis (educating the whole person) to a military academy that offers a sanitized, fragmented education has been a difficult transition for me. I heed Palmer's call for a more integrative model of education, but I'm not sure how to make that happen in my current position. I'd be eager to hear what my colleagues think of this book, but I'm not sure I would recommend it over other more practical works.

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a fan & follower of Parker Palmer and Arthur Zajonc so was excited to find they'd written a book on education together. They describe “Integrative Education” (6) as “a fragmented but promising movement-in-the-making … whose premises, means, and ends are not yet well formed” and call for an “overarching education philosophy that seeks to cultivate the whole human being in community" (16). This book draws broad parameters around that movement and articulates beginning philosophical premises. From my perspective, what they call to be "integrated" in higher education are simply the kinds of social engagement practiced in critical pedagogy and the kinds inner work and attention to purpose practiced in contemplative pedagogy (they give little attention to the reasoning and dedication to truth practiced in Socratic pedagogy). Their vision is inspiring, though, again from my perspective, every vision they draw and argument they make applies equally to precollege education.

[Bonnie Irwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book speaks to me on so many levels. Palmer and Zajonc talk about the whole student and the whole faculty member with grace and earnestness lacking in many books on higher education. For education to be truly integrative (and successful), we must create an environment of trust on our campuses and look within. My highest praise for a book like this: I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

[Silke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parker Palmer has not disappointed me to date. This book is a great read, but more so for administrators of universities and community colleges than for faculty. Although full-time faculty can get a number of good ideas from this book, it is administrators who must see the value of this type of education and in bringing the idea of community and collaboration into higher education.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love Parker Palmer's books. Unfortunately, though, I had a more tepid response to this book (which he co-edited). I think the topic is really important. But this volume didn't strike me as being as strong as what I typically expect from him.

[Weekend Reader_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in a faculty book club and felt like I got more out of the discussion than when I read the book itself. The concepts are too abstract especially when you consider the fast past nature of the academy.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow read...full of things to ponder about education and our role in it. (Did I mention I had lunch with Parker Palmer?)

[Jason Panella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great ideas and topic delivered terribly.

[Cindy Peck]

more of the same Parker Palmer