The Pursuit of Wisdom and Happiness in Education: Historical Sources and Contemplative Practices
The Pursuit of Wisdom and Happiness in Education: Historical Sources and Contemplative Practices. Sean Steel. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2014.
Aimed at primary and secondary school educators, Sean Steel’s The Pursuit of Wisdom and Happiness in Education argues that philosophy, contemplative practices of wisdom properly understood, should be incorporated into a school’s curriculum in order for students to live well and be happy. For Steel, the neglect of philosophy in the school system is due to a multitude of reasons: the state requirements of demanding critical and analytical thinking, technology, and assessment above all else; the confusion, if not outright hostility, among academics about philosophy and its role in the school system; and debates among classical and medieval thinkers about the nature and purpose of philosophy itself. In this book, Steel not only clarifies the points of agreement and dissension among these parties about what constitutes philosophy, but how philosophical practices of wisdom can be incorporated into the classroom for the benefit of students.
The book has sixteen chapters, with an introduction and bibliography, and is divided into five sections. The first section (chapter 1) reviews the contemporary academic literature about the role of wisdom in primary and secondary schools; the second (chapters 2-5) examines how selected classical and medieval thinkers understood wisdom; the third (chapters 6-8) shows how contemporary schools discourage practices of wisdom; the fourth (chapters 9-11) points out the limitations of current attempts of incorporating contemplative practices into schools; and the fifth (chapters 12-15) explores the state of wisdom-informed pedagogies in school today. Steel concludes with his own account (chapter 16) of what a wisdom-infused education would look like, offering a vision of a Platonic metaxy with students ascending towards as well as descending down from the apex of wisdom.
In the first chapter, Steel shows that contemporary academics in education who think about wisdom conceive of it as a type of cognitive skill or a process of self-discovery that can be assessed: Robert Sternberg, Patricia Arlin, Paul B. Baltes, Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi and Kevin Rathu all fail to see wisdom as a type of character or spiritual desire within a person. Other thinkers suffer from a conceptual confusion about the nature of wisdom. John Kekes and Douglas Lawson focus only on prudence and neglect wisdom; Glen Gray equates wisdom with theoretical knowledge but is not sure how it is related to prudence; and Charles Hartshorne thinks wisdom is a type of excellence (arete) that is tragedy-free, contrary to the Greeks’ understandings of it. Finally, John Dewey and his followers dismiss wisdom entirely from student learning, thinking that society can progress with only ratio (discursive reasoning) and discarding intellectus (contemplation).
In the next four chapters, Steel reviews Aristotle’s, Boethius’, Maimonides’, and Aquinas’ understandings of wisdom to find a definition that, unlike contemporary academic accounts, is richer, fuller, and more accurate in the way humans know the world. The wise person in Aristotle knows how first principles are related to truth and, with prudence, are related to particulars. Thus, the wise person (spoudaios) is one who knows both universals (wisdom) and particulars (prudence), seeking the end of happiness (virtue and self-sufficiency) for human beings in their education. Schools therefore should be oriented to contemplate the highest things in life, the truth, instead of preserving biological processes of nutrition, reproduction, and self-preservation (the ends of critical and analytical thinking). By contemplating truth, students partake in the immortalizing activity of philosophy around which school should be centered.
Aquinas adds to this Aristotelian paradigm of wisdom with a love of God that is a gift from the Holy Spirit. It orders a person’s intellectual and moral virtues for happiness. This account of wisdom differs from contemporary educators (e.g., Benjamin Bloom) who fail to distinguish between discursive reasoning and contemplation, having only discursive reasoning as the ultimate objective for students. By contrast, discursive reasoning is at the bottom of Aquinas’ account of reason with contemplation at the top. Even if one were to remove God from the classroom, Aquinas’ understanding of wisdom still is useful for educators by encouraging students to work without consideration of their grades and instead study for a love of knowledge. But if discursive reasoning is the ultimate end, then students are motivated to learn only for their grades, becoming preoccupied with busywork and neglecting contemplation.
Contemplation arises within oneself in resistance to the disorder in the world around him or her. The desire to discover a right order within oneself is the philosophical response to tragedy, as Boethius’ life demonstrates. However, as Maimonides tells us, only a few will become philosophical because of the difficulty that this activity demands. This does not condemn the many to total ignorance if they learn the cultural traditions of their societies, which are the carriers of wisdom for the many. Wisdom consequently is possible for all students to learn, albeit their learning will differ according to their abilities and characters. What these classical and medieval thinkers offer is a portrait of wisdom that is more comprehensive than contemporary academics’ versions. Whether their insights can be incorporated into the classroom is the subject of the rest of this book.
In the third section, Steel describes the drive to integrate technology into the classroom with the role of the teacher as an authority of knowledge being replaced as an architect of knowledge who is focused on process rather than content in the education of students. Citing Barry Cooper’s works, Steel shows how technology is fundamentally about technique and pragmatism and therefore cannot be a substitute for wisdom. The contemporary promotion of technology in the classroom is similar to Augustine’s time, when successful teachers were sophists and proud of their techniques compared to lesser known educators who were humble but genuine seekers of truth. Whether in ancient times or today, the problem of introducing philosophy, a sense of wonder, into schools is a perennial one, where students are not concerned with particular goals and thereby possess leisure to contemplate and celebrate the truth.
In the fourth section Steel reviews the recent attempts to infuse wisdom into schools, known as the P4C (Philosophy for Children) Movement. Steel provides two examples, one which is genuinely philosophical and the other which is not. The first is Gareth Matthew whose studies show that children engage in philosophical inquiry, contrary to the claims of educators like Jean Piaget. Teachers and students consequently must be protected from the suffering of naïve questioning and allow courage to philosophizing with no apparent benefit to them. By contrast, Matthew Lipman conceives of philosophy as a type of self-corrective thinking that teaches critical and analytical reasoning, making philosophy a handmaiden to the arts and sciences, whereas it should be the opposite. These two different approaches raises the question what is philosophy: is it the love of wisdom or a type of metacognition? For Steel, philosophy is the former: it is a basic existential disposition to the world that is not a concept, method, science, or even teachable subject. The most a teacher can do is show students how to study philosophy, for to philosophize must emerge within the person itself.
In the fifth and final section of the book, Steel shows how philosophy, “contemplative education,” can be incorporated into classroom practices. Steel begins by discussing the problems that technology poses to contemplative education, citing George Grant’s criticisms that computers actually deform students’ consciousness of reality, prompting curiosity and “surfing” instead of inquiry and study. He next discusses specific techniques that teachers have adopted to introduce philosophy in the classroom, like meditative practices, mindfulness, journal reflections, attention to primary texts, and the use of visual material and physical objects. Undergirding these practices is both an epistemological and erotic (spiritual) commitment to contemplation about the truth. They are attempts to awaken in students’ consciousness that aspect that seeks immortality and their place in the world, seeking answers to the purpose of their existence.
In the conclusion Steel invokes Plato’s symbol of the metaxy, the in-between state in which humans exists between the divine and the mortal, as for the type of contemplative or philosophical education he advocates. Both teachers and students must be attune to this existential tension and explore both the ascending and descending aspects of the metaxy so they can acquire wisdom and prudence together. If schools truly desire to become philosophical, if they wish to have wisdom in their students, then they must paradoxically must make time and place for “doing nothing” so students can live in leisure.
For those interested in education, Steel’s The Pursuit of Wisdom and Happiness in Education is a required read. Grounded in both theory and practice, the book provides an alternative perspective of what schools can and should be. Realistic about the obstacles implementing such an education, Steel nevertheless suggests practical ways that create a space and a time for leisure in the classroom. If you believe education is more than accountability and assessment, technological mastery and prowess, or global competition and job-training, The Pursuit of Wisdom and Happiness in Education shows that you are not alone.
First, it is always mind-boggling, but in a good kind of way, to start off my early morning hours with stimulating thought after reading another episode of Then Again. I have come to the conclusion that this is part and parcel of the writing of Prof. Trepanier, and any discussion emanating from his writing leads to and requires philosophical thinking. To examine any concept is to delve into one of the facets of, and about, life. I, for one, cannot imagine anyone leading an unexamined life.
As a healthcare practitioner, I firmly believe and have fulfilled my duties in the real profession of medicine-- not the phony machinations of an educated scribe, copying and pasting into an electronic health record, and simply perpetuating a fellow human's ills, while not fulfilling the actual mandate of the profession to resolve, heal, get better, and thus improve the quality and quantity of another life. I have realized, through contemplation which examines the nature of life (bios), critically important concepts that have been my guides to healing. And this healing extends to not solely H. sapiens, but to the entire bios. It is a theory of everything.
So, today's "Then Again" raises red flags of alarm if our current classroom curriculum does not explore "What's it all about Alfie?" I am not sure if there is a major booboo in the opening paragraph where Trepanier lists Steel's explanation of why philosophy is neglected. For example, "the state requirements of demanding critical and analytical thinking" would be in my view tied intimately into a love of philosophy, and not the opposite. I would argue that the "American disgrace" we see portrayed by the conduct of our Congress and former president Trump, and by as much as one-third of the populace, is a reflection of a lack of critical thinking.
Another but related part of human nature that seems to me to be endangered is that of the love of understanding, the desire to explore, to bring together in order to solve the great Alfie puzzle. I broach the chasm between "everyday" life and medicine by an understanding of concepts that tie one into the other, and with further "delving" the boundaries are erased, and integration of the two is realized. This ability to see the interconnectivity of all things is a product of curiosity. And the curiosity is one that probes the depths; not a glib enterprise that skims the surface. As a teacher, I view education as a Christmas tree. At its most superficial level it is a gift that brings enlightenment. The tree of life has roots or base concepts, a trunk of major concepts to guide me, and ornaments that relate to details, data, or endpoints of what the concepts bring forth. I use the acronym SAIN (Systems Analysis & Integrity Networking) to reinforce this concept. It is graphically described and portrayed in the book Prostate Cancer. Essential Concepts for Survival (http://tinyurl.com/blot2zm)
In my almost 80 years, I find that acronyms, if cleverly concocted, will convey deep thinking that always have a philosophical element. Try this acronym on for size: "CONCEPT."
Concatenate Our Notions, Create Enlightenment, Provide Tactic
*concatenate: To make into a whole by joining a system of parts
*notion: That which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity
When teaching patients (a class of students so to speak) about the importance of concepts in medicine, exploring this acronym should provide insight, as does the very meaning provide insight. To bring together (coordinate, synthesize, harmonize) a series of parts (each aspect of health and how it has been relegated to specialized components) is to gain a greater understanding of how any "organism" thrives. It should bring home why the current super-specialization in medicine fails so many patients. And these notions or mental thoughts/cognition that require work/effort, lead us to a deeper understanding that optimizes life, literally and figuratively. Working the mind is part of philosophical growth. Our society has become lazy, and this is reflected in the pandemic of obesity and the resulting 50% of the health problems of Western society. We don't work our bodies nor our minds. It's easier to sit on a couch and have pizza and beer than to discuss something that may stress our cognitive processes and lead to effects that range from the somatic to the spiritual.
What we have is not an Alfie scenario but a Cool Hand Luke one:
"What we've got here is failure to communicate" —Strother Martin & Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967)
And part of that failure to communicate is not simply failing to communicate with one another, but with a failure to communicate with ourselves (i.e., know thyself, examine who you are and what you are; ask about the meaning of your life). So with the probability that there was a typo in that first paragraph and that Steel meant that our school system neglects philosophy because it does NOT require critical and analytical thinking (delving into concepts), I would opine that what we see here and now in America is the result of such neglect. What we've got here for about one-third of our citizenry is a Failure to Understand Critical Thinking. Now go ahead and create an acronym from that and you have an accurate assessment of the state of health of our society. Clearly, the mess we are in reflects a horrible failure in our "system" of education.