Eros, Aesthetics, and Holistic Education: Intersections of Life and Learning

• In Event: 31.069 - Mindfulness, Wellness, and Transformation: Holistic Practices in Higher Education

Abstract

This presentation addresses links between eros and aesthetics and their significance to a holistic education. The setting is two undergraduate classes in pre-service teacher education. In those classes I introduce some key components of eros and point to parallels with aesthetic experience. With the students, my intent is to overcome general misconceptions about the terms and to stress connections between the external world, their private lives, and self-identities as pre-service teachers. The study concludes with two examples of evocative writing that resulted from class exercises in which students were encouraged to enter into a Buberian I-Thou dialogue—in one case, with a object in a natural sciences museum, in the other case, with a photograph.

Author

• Boyd Eric White, McGill University