The Examined Life

Front matter

THE EXAMINED LIFE

Family, Community, Work in American Literature

Jim Wayne Miller

Table of Contents

WORK

“A Busy Multitude”: Work in American Life and Literature—Jim Wayne Miller

Participant Reflections: Work Out of Work—Louis H. Palmer, IH

Preface

“We all have a stake in seeing to it that the humanities are properly taught and thoroughly learned in our schools. We all have a stake in making sure our children know the shape of the river they are traveling.”

Lynne Cheney, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in “American Memory” calls for a renewed commitment among those in higher education to strengthen humanities education in our nation’s public schools. We at the Appalachian Consortium share this concern. In the Southern Highlands, where dropout rates are as high as 40 and 50 percent, ensuring that our young people are acquainted with history, literature, and the cultural values that have shaped our present society has emerged as a clear priority. Most of the states within our region have identified education as a foremost concern, even ahead of economic development. We recognize that the challenge of imparting cultural literacy to our youth most often falls on the shoulders of teachers in our public schools. The Appalachian Consortium is dedicated to assisting our teachers in providing students with a meaningful and stimulating encounter with the humanities, an encounter which is vital in transmitting an understanding of American values and culture.

Recognizing that public school teachers in the Southern Highlands were searching for resources to enliven and enrich their humanities programs, the Consortium, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, initiated the Southern Highlands Institute for Educators (SHIE). During the summer of 1984 programs were offered at four regional universities with over 120 teachers attending. Their response convinced Consortium members that the offering of quality summer institutes and the establishment ofsustainable channels of communication among educators in our public schools and universities are perhaps the most significant and far-reaching contributions the organization will make to the future of public education in the vii region we serve.

“Cultural Values In American Literature” has been a four-year SHIE program supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The 1986-88 summer institutes, led by Dr. Jim Wayne Miller, focused on a triad of concepts, “family, community, work,” central to achieving a better understanding ofour values, beliefs, and behavior. The words of participants in the 1986-88 Southern Highlands Institute for Educators best describe the benefits of programs which bring together educators and scholars in the humanities:

“I have found this institute to be vital, inspiring, and transformational. It has increased my knowledge of literature in ways that will be helpful and stimulating to my students. Too often teachers are treated like old books and put into a certain place to gather dust. We need to be taken down and at least thumbed through occasionally, and the typical district curriculum course is not quite the right kind of handling. We need more programs like this one.”

One of the most successful components of the 1984 Southern Highlands Institute for Educators was the publication of a resource guide for teachers entitled Reading, Writing, Region, authored by Jim Wayne Miller. The publication provides a checklist, purchase guide, and directory for educators and school and community libraries in the region.

We are pleased to publish this companion volume, The Examined Life: Family, Community, and Work in American Literature. In this work Dr. Miller explores the cultural values which “affirm our humanity” (Cheney) and lead us to a richer understanding of ourselves, the community we live in, our nation, and our global community. Elements of culture given voice in literature, such as family, community, and work, become maps that help orient us in regard to place and time, thereby providing students with a means for self-explanation, selfviii knowledge. Dr. Miller describes his consideration of the central cultural values as “an effort to make a whole out of parts.” Too often we limit our reflection on such values to the parameters of the discipline we are immersed in—history, literature, sciences. In this work Dr. Miller bridges the gaps between disciplines, thus providing a valuable resource for all involved in public education. He suggests, “We can guide our students to reflection on their heritage, to a perspective on human existence and a connection to permanent concerns by helping them, as others have helped us, to make a whole out of parts.”

The Examined Life is designed to provide a guide for humanities educators to resources helpful in integrating the three cultural themes into a broader curriculum. The introduction presented by Dr. Miller gives an orientation to the themes and the humanities approach which considers them in a cultural, historical, and literary context. The sections considering family, community, and work begin with Professor Miller’s in-depth discussion of each theme and the three major literary works examined in light of that theme. The historical framework he provides shows us how the theme develops through time and in relation to particular places and cultures. Thus we see family as a dynamic force rather than a static construct.

Complementing Dr. Miller’s discussion of the cultural values and their expression in the literary texts are excerpts from essays written by participating teachers. These passages provide unique insights to the themes and texts examined during the summer programs. Following these considerations of family, community, and work are curriculum units developed by teachers involved in the summer programs. This component of the guide offers specific examples of how the thematic content can be explored in the context of general curriculum objectives and requirements. These resource units with their exciting and imaginative exercises and methods will be especially useful for humanities educators.

Finally, the publication includes an annotated bibliography of central and supplemental readings. Also presented is a bibliography of texts useful in gaining a general background in American history and the development of American culture and cultures. A listing of critical works and further supplemental texts is offered as well.

The Appalachian Consortium, with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is pleased to make this valuable resource guide available to humanities teachers and public schools in the Southern Highlands. The foremost priority of the Appalachian Consortium in all our educational services is commitment to assisting public school teachers in providing a vital and enriching educational experience for our young people. We look to our teachers for suggestions and input on ways tomeet this challenge.

Karen Lohr Editor