from The Culture We Deserve by Jacques Barzun

Adult Seminar

Communion, Culture, Dialogue, Meditation

Provide the participants with the following definition of culture (from p.3 of The Culture We Deserve): “the traditional things of the mind and spirit, the interests and abilities acquired by taking thought; in short, the effort that used to be called cultivation … of the self.” In the week prior to the seminar, have participants write a response to the following question: “what is culture and what role does it play in my life?”

Distribute the text and ask participants to speculate on what sort of text it might be based on the title and the first sentence in each paragraph. Have participants number the sentences in each of the three paragraphs (A-B-C) as follows: A 1-7; B 1-4; C 1-8. Read the text for the first time and identify any unfamiliar words or phrases.

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Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) was a French-born American historian. Focusing on ideas and culture, he wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball and classical music, and is best known as a philosopher of education. In the book Teacher in America (1945), Barzun influenced the training of schoolteachers in the United States.

He published more than forty books, was awarded the American Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was dubbed a knight of the French Legion of Honor. His magnum opus, the historical retrospective From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present (2000), was published when he was 93 years old.

Have participants identify all unfamiliar words or phrases (be sure to include meditation, cultivation, systematic, vicarious, temper, axiomatic, warrant) for a list to be displayed on the board. Have participants work in small groups to define each word in turn, stressing its use in this context as well as its dictionary denotation. Note: context is especially important because Barzun often uses words in specific (non-generic) ways, so discuss these terms until everyone is comfortable with them.

There are 19 sentences in the entire text. Assign each sentence in turn to one or more participants (working together if in groups of two or more). Have participants paraphrase each sentence into the clearest, contemporary English. Share the paraphrases with the entire group one-by-one as all participants take notes on their copies of the text.

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What sentence in this text would you most like to hear discussed? (round-robin response)

What specific question would you ask about that sentence (spontaneous discussion)

What does Barzun mean when he writes (in the first paragraph) that

meditation and conversation are “actions of the mind along the path of finesse”? Why finesse?

Why does Barzun argue (sentence B1) that “true meditation … excludes nothing”? Do you agree?

According to Barzun, how does culture “put experience in order” (B4)?

Why does Barzun argue (in the last paragraph) that “today’s temper is not conducive to either form of communion”? If he is correct, can you imagine an antidote to today’s temper?

Based on this text, how do you think Barzun would define the term cultivation? (He uses the word twice.) What is the value of cultivation?

What part of our culture (“art, thought, history, religion”) would you most like to dedicate yourself to exploring through meditation and conversation?

How might you best begin this exploration?

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Return to Barzun’s original definition of culture (shared in the Launch Activity). Ask participants to list on paper everything having to do with this definition that they said, heard, or thought during the seminar.

What aspect of culture (“art, thought, history, religion”) would you most like to explore through meditation and conversation? After reading and discussing this excerpt from Barzun’s The Culture We Deserve, write a letter to yourself in which you commit to the systematic exploration of one facet of culture. Refer to Barzun’s essay for supporting or clarifying details.

(LDC Task#: 14 )

Ask participants to write a one or two sentence description of the facet of culture they would like to pursue and then list as many details about that facet and their pursuit of it as possible. Then have them write a one or two sentence summary of how they hope to cultivate their own minds and hearts through this pursuit.

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Have participants divide the raw material from the brainstorming session into the paragraph sections that they will use in their letters—being careful to include references from the original Barzun text.

Give participants 20-30 minutes to write the first drafts of their letters.

Divide the group up into pairs according to similar interests (art, thought, history, religion, etc.) and have them read their letters aloud to their partners while the partners listen and take notes. Have each partner then ask at least one question for clarity and make at least one suggestion for cultivation (meditation and conversation). Switch roles so that each participant reads his or her letter and receives feedback.

Allow time for each individual to edit his or her letter for clarity AND to take advantage of the questions / suggestions received during the Revision stage. Have participants produce a final copy of the letter addressed directly to themselves once month hence.

Mail the letters so that each participant in the seminar receives a detailed reminder of his or her chosen pursuit in the U.S. mail one month after the seminar.

Terry Roberts

National Paideia Center

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from The Culture We Deserve

Jacques Barzun

Culture in whatever form—art, thought, history, religion—is for meditation and

conversation. Both are necessary sequels to the experience. Cultivation does not come

automatically after exposure to the good things as health follows a dose of the right

drug. If it did, orchestra players would be the most cultured people musically and copy

editors the finest judges of literature. Nor does “reading up” on art suffice unless it spurs

meditation and conversation. Both are actions of the mind along the path of finesse. No

one can imagine a systematic conversation.

As for true meditation, it excludes nothing; its virtue is to comprehend—in both

senses: to understand and to take in the fullest view. Both are actions of the mind-and-

heart, and therefore charged with the strongest feelings. Indeed, both interior

monologue and spoken dialogue aim at discerning which feelings and what degree of

each belong to an idea or image. That is how culture reshapes the personality; it

develops the self by offering the vicarious experience of art and thought; it puts

experience in order.

The active use of time is of course for pleasure; its impulse is love. Everybody

used to know this when the words amateur and dilettante were taken in their original

meanings of “lover” and “seeker of delight.” We have turned them into terms of

contempt to denote bunglers and triflers. But the impulse of love in cultivation leads

beyond a selfish pleasure. It leads to communion in two kinds—with the living, by the

discovery of kindred spirits in conversation, and with the dead, by the intimacy of

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admiration for greatness. Today’s temper is not conducive to either form of communion.

Conversation is wrecked on the shoals of shoptalk, which is factuality unredeemed by

thought; and admiration is reproved as uncritical, it being axiomatic that greatness is a

myth. The age of the anti-hero sees no warrant for submission to anything or anybody.

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