Educating...for what?: Meaning and Purpose

Higgins School of the Humanities/Difficult Dialogues: Video Recording from 10/5/2011 event featuring Diana Chapman Walsh and Arthur Zajonc titled "Meaning and Purpose" Event Description: As Kronman tells us, questions of meaning and purpose are often suspect in colleges and universities. If an understanding that to be educated relies on the integration of all of our higher faculties (mind, heart and spirit ) once existed, it was eclipsed long ago by a focus on the rational mind as the locus of reliable behavior. This reduced scope of teaching and learning within the academy has deprived both faculty and students of more substantive and meaningful experiences. How might we re-orient the academy to these deeper purposes—to the heart of higher education? Our guests for a conversation on questions of meaning and purpose are Diana Chapman Walsh, former President of Wellesley College, and Arthur Zajonc, professor of physics at Amherst College. In their work and their writing, they both inspire and ignite conversations around the issue of integrative education.