School is Sacred
A Philosophy of Education for Our Time
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Chapter 1 Setting the Stage
- Philosophy of Education
- A Sacred Lens
- Approaching the Subject
- The Importance of the Sacred
- Chapter 2 Exposing the Dark
- Forces of Desecration
- Secularization
- The Dark Side of the Sacred
- Chapter 3 A Place for Feeling
- Cognitive Feelings
- Deeper Connection Between Thought and Feeling
- Relational Emotions
- The Body and Emotion
- Chapter 4 Feelings of the Sacred
- Symptoms of the Sacred
- Beyond Words
- Transcendence
- Awe
- Surprise
- Chapter 5 Sacred Place
- Learning in Sacred Space
- Architecture
- Centers and Boundaries
- Thresholds
- Inner Sancta
- Chapter 6 Sacred Time
- Consequences and Coincidences of Clock Time
- Wasting Time
- Other World Times
- Trajectories of Time
- Chapter 7 Rituals, Memorials, and Sacred Objects
- Rituals for Community Building
- Rituals for Healing and Grieving
- Rituals for Change
- Rites of Passage
- Chapter 8 When Sacred Cultures Collide
- Asking the Right Questions
- Defending the Idea of the Sacred
- Chapter 9 Reflections
- Notes
- Index
The essence of education is that it be religious.
Pray, what is religious education?
A religious education is one which inculcates duty and reverence.
And the foundation of reverence is this perception, that the present
holds within itself the complete sum of existence,
backwards and forwards,
that whole amplitude of time,
which is eternity.
Alfred North Whitehead, The Aims of Education (1929)
Table of Contents
Deeper Connection Between Thought and Feeling
CHAPTER 4 Feelings of the Sacred
Consequences and Coincidences of Clock Time
CHAPTER 7 Rituals, Memorials, and Sacred Objects
Rituals for Community Building
Rituals for Healing and Grieving
CHAPTER 8 When Sacred Cultures Collide
CHAPTER 1 Setting the Stage
The award-winning movie, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, is a fictional account of an indifferent teacher who must fulfill his five-year contract in government service. He is appointed against his wishes to a teaching post in Lunana, the most remote school in Bhutan, and probably the most remote school in the world. The emphasis of the Bhutanese government, reflecting the slogan Gross National Happiness, is seen in part to depend on education for all, making the schools a focus of effort for the country. In Lunana, reflecting the reality of life lived on the edge where having a teacher is not always possible, the people have a deep devotion and veneration for the school and its teacher. The whole community travels miles to meet the new teacher as he is forced to trek for days into this remote village. They proudly show him the school, so poor, that precious paper is taped to the windows to keep the cold out and no books or teaching aids can be found within. The classroom is covered in dust from disuse. But the villagers enfold this reluctant teacher into their community so much so that he can never forget them or the bright faces of his students or the value of his simple instruction to these children of yak herders.
In one early scene that begins to point the teacher to the greater reality of what he is called to be and do as a teacher, a young local leader shows him how to light his fire with yak dung. The city-bred teacher exclaims,
“You are too respectful. My friends would think it was so funny.”
“Well, you are a teacher.”
“A teacher is just like everybody else.”
“A teacher guides our children to follow the right path.”
“The right path?”
Details
- Pages
- VIII, 168
- Publication Year
- 2026
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781803746869
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781803746876
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781803746852
- DOI
- 10.3726/b22204
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2026 (January)
- Keywords
- defining sacred sacred emotions teaching for meaning school as sacred time wasting time school as sacred space liminal experience rites of passage hazing emotion in learning schools as battlegrounds reflection awe philosophy of education
- Published
- Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2025. viii, 168 pp.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
