| Through a close analysis of archival documents and published works, this dissertation argues that Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858-1954), a turn-of-the-century leader of country life and rural education, developed a prophetic ecological philosophy of education long before the emergence of the modern environmental movement. Bailey's thought flowed from an alternative, ecological world view characterized by biocentrism, cooperation, and a reenchanted view of nature. This world view informs his understanding of science as subordinate to fundamental questions of meaning, value and purpose, as well as his understanding of democratic society as an extension of the democracy of nature. On these foundations, Bailey fashioned a social vision--a permanent civilization--that reinforced the necessity of a unique rural culture, motivated by a moral relationship to the land, to counterbalance urban-industrial "progress". The means to his social vision was an educational philosophy aimed at producing fulfilled individuals who are connected to the land and to each other. Bailey championed nature-study as a means of putting people into sympathy with their natural surroundings, as well as a civic conception of higher education that stressed service learning. Bailey's comprehensive educational vision aimed ultimately at the development of individual personality--the artistic expression of life--through participation in democratic society and the unfolding cosmos. This account of Bailey's educational thought links the histories of rural and environmental education, highlights the existence of a long-standing alternative to the modern Western mind set, and provides insights into how educational theory and practice can be reconceived in an age of ecological crisis. Moreover, it points to Bailey as a living example of how questions of meaning, value, and purpose can be reinjected into academic inquiry when researchers are also philosophers--in the old-fashioned spirit of the search for wisdom. |
