The Heart of Learning

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The Heart of Learning asks teachers and students to recommit themselves to what they love most in education. The renown contributors outline a map for enabling us to connect with the very reasons why we teach and learn thus to achieve greater fulfillment in both. Incisive essays by Parker Palmer, Rachel Naomi Remen, and the Tibetan lama Dozgchen Ponlop Rinpoche examine how our unique, individual experiences of the sacred can profoundly enrich how we learn and teach. Writings by bell hooks and the Dalai Lama show how we simultaneously can cultivate both individual beliefs and openness to the diversity of the contemporary classroom. Works by Huston Smith and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi explore our need to balance our past histories and traditions with the needs of present and future generations.This extraordinary collection of original work provides a unified, inspiring, and immensely practical new paradigm for how teaching and learning can mean more, accomplish more, and inspire the best in each of us. This book is a must for every teacher, student, parent, and anyone who loves to learn.Introduction
Part I: Sacredness: The Ground of Learning
1. The Grace of Great Things: Reclaiming the Sacred in Knowing, Teaching, and Learning – Parker J. Palmer
2. Educating for Mission, Meaning, and Compassion – Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
3. Buddhist Education: The Path of Wisdom and Knowledge – The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
4. Unlearning to See the Sacred – Jeremy Hayward
Part II: Identity
5. Education and the Human Heart – His Holiness the Dalai Lama
6. Commitment and Openness: A Contemplative Approach to Pluralism – Judith Simmer-Brown
7. Embracing Freedom: Spirituality and Liberation – bell hooks
Part III: Relationship and Community
8. Reassembling the Pieces: Architechture as Pedagogy – David W. Orr
9. Education and the Western Spiritual Tradition – John Taylor Gatto
10. Learning as Initiation: Not-Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Healing – Joan Halifax
Part IV: Tradition and Innovation
11. Holistic Education for an Emerging Culture – Ron Miller
12. Spirituality and Leadership – Diana Chapman Walsh
13. Spirituality in Education: A Dialogue – Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Huston Smith
14. Where Do We Go from Here? – Vincent Harding
Conclusion: The Heart of Learning
Acknowledgments
Notes and References
BibliographySteven Glazer organized the Naropa Institute’s landmark conference, “Spirituality in Education,” from which this book was created. Long active in the not-for-profit educational world, he has taught in the Newton, Massachusetts, public schools, and lives in Patagonia, Arizona.US

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