Abstract
Baker and Bilbro have written a thoughtful treatise about conceptualizing and implementing education as grounded, embedded wisdom formation rather than as instruction in dislocated knowledge acquisition. The arguments of this book are not new, but the discussion remains eminently pertinent and it is well offered. The primary enticement of this text is the interweaving of Wendell Berry’s poetry, fiction, and non-fiction writings into the process.
This is a text for educators and citizens willing to take a hard look at current higher education’s pedagogical proclivities and ask whether we might not often be increasing socio-cultural harm rather than promoting good when we do not encourage that learning be tied to the particularity of place. Baker and Bilbro have written this work hoping to increase focus on learning that emphasizes social stability over social itinerancy.
Considering stability and itinerancy, the authors contrast their distinction between wisdom and knowledge throughout their text via use of the terms sticker and boomer. A sticker is a person who cultivates wisdom, which includes maintaining parochial rootedness (stability). A boomer is a person who manifests commitment to dislocated ideas and ideals, manifesting in a sense of provincial rootlessness (itinerancy).
Contrasts—sticker vs boomer, parochial vs provincial—drive much of this text. This is a strength of the text, but also a concern. Contrasting perspectives allow for clarity of argument, but mosaic richness is missing in places where it would have contributed to the cogency of the authors’ perspectives. However, the text is not entirely absent of brackish thinking. There are places where rapprochement is explored. For instance, in the chapter “Geography: Reaping the Fruits of Fidelity,” the authors explore cultural geographer Yi-fu Tuan’s idea of a “cosmopolitan hearth” (p. 150) and Irish poet and critic Patrick Kavanaugh’s notion of a “courageous yet humble parochialism” (p. 152), ideas meant to showcase that parochialism and provincialism are not primarily nodal opposites, but rather are differing perspectives on a continuum. Yet, too quickly the authors leave off exploration of collaborative potential and return to extolling parochialism. Parochialism enamored with itself can become dangerous to anyone diverging from its norms. The text would have been stronger with further consideration of cooperative possibilities. Of course, to a significant extent the authors simply remain faithful to Berry’s well-laid paths. Berry strongly underscores the local over against the general in his writings and the authors follow this lead throughout their text.
Refreshingly, the authors don’t just write about this topic, they seek to live it. In “Afterword: The Authors and Their Stories,” we find that in humble authenticity the authors share about ongoing attempts to seek to match actions with rhetoric. They, too, seek to be faithful to place. The entire text is an extended reflection on the healthiness of fidelity to geography as precursor to enhancing other fidelities and, as noted, this comes home to roost in the authors’ own lives.
Time and again, the text is strongest when highlighting that we are embodied beings—living with particular people in particular places. We are part of a larger whole. Tragically, the transient nature of much employment functions against healthy understanding of the meaningful communal nature of work; that is, we are often not around long enough to understand the vital cultural connections and implications of our efforts. Thus, an infidelity of how we construe responsibilities to surrounding context(s) manifests itself. This text substantively explores mitigating such infidelity.
In the final chapter, “Community: Learning to Love the Membership,” the authors share aspects of William Cronan’s essay “‘Only Connect …’: The Goals of a Liberal Education.” Cronan asks, “What does it mean to be a liberally educated person?” He answers, “more than anything else, being an educated person means being able to see connections that allow one to make sense of the world and act within it in creative ways.” Yet, “liberal education is not something any of us ever achieve; it is not a state. Rather, it is a way of living in the face of our own ignorance, a way of groping toward wisdom in full recognition of our own folly, a way of educating ourselves without any illusion that our education will ever be complete.” Finally, we find Cronan noting, “Education for human freedom is also education for human community. The two cannot exist without each other” (pp. 180–183).
The above statements communicate the crux of the text. We are educated for the sake of aiding others. We are part of the ongoing grand experiment that is human community. In the authors’ understanding, the sooner universities get on with recognizing our responsibilities to one another and the more universities promote staying in place to fulfill these responsibilities, the better for everyone.