In Earth in Mind, Orr focuses not on problems in education, but on the problem of education. Much of what has
gone wrong with the world, he argues, is the result of inadequate and misdirected education that alienates us from
life in the name of human domination; causes students to worry about how to make a living before they know who
they are; overemphasizes success and careers; separates feeling from intellect and the practical from the theoretical
and deadens the sense of wonder for the created world. The crisis we face, Orr explains, is one of mind, perception,
and values. It is, first and foremost, an educational challenge.
Table of Contents
1 What is education for?
2 The dangers of education
3 The problem of education
4 The business of education
5 Love
6 Some thoughts on intelligence
7 Reflections on water and oil
8 Virtue
9 Forests and trees
10 Politics
11 Economics
12 Judgment : Pascal's Wager and economics in a hotter time
13 Rating colleges
14 The problem of disciplines and the discipline of problems
15 Professionalism and the human prospect
16 Designing minds
17 Architecture as pedagogy
18 Agriculture and the liberal arts
19 Educating a constituency for the long haul
20 Love it or lose it : the coming biophilia revolution
21 A world that takes its environment seriously
22 Prices and the life exchanged : costs of the U.S. food system
23 Refugees or homecomers? : conjectures about the future of rural America
24 Hope in hard times
Conclusion : Earth in mind