Their Highest Vocation

«I am truly grateful to Helen and excited about this book. I think it should be mandatory reading for anyone serious about the role of and opportunities confronting higher education today. Further, I hope all of us will consider the deeper educational questions Helen raises in relationship to serving the intellectual and moral development needs of the Millennial generation. I come away from her text with a much clearer understanding of this generation of students and what I can do as an educator to support their growth and development. Further, I’m filled with a greater optimism that the world will benefit from this generation of leaders. Through her own reflective educational practice, Fox provides profound insights to those of us who are committed to the notion that the role of higher education is to create knowledge and transform individuals to bring about positive social change toward a more just and humane world. Dr. Fox has written with great insight and clarity about questions that my colleagues and I wrestle with everyday: how do we support students’ growth and development as they consider their role in making the world a better place? We toss around words like ‘justice, inclusion, mattering, non-violence’ as desired out-comes of higher education and the development of an educated person – but what educational structures are necessary to support students’ own discovery of the meaning of justice and role in bringing that about? I look forward to the many important conversations this book will inevitably stimulate!» (Susan A. Wilson, Associate Dean for Community Life, Academic Dean’s Office, Goddard College)
«This short, radiant, radical book is several things at once. It is a critical but loving assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Millennial generation of undergraduates admitted to the elite American public universities. It is a wise and practical reflection on what faculty can do to encourage their students’ flourishing, both as subjects who arrive at university constrained by unexamined assumptions about race and class and by ‘banking education’ norms, and as agents who are already gifted and passionate about making a positive difference in the world, but too often lack the self-understanding and the insight into others very different from themselves, necessary to realize this aspiration. The book is enlivened by the kind of moral passion we find in Jonathan Kozol, and tempered by the grace and wisdom that comes from many years of practicing the pedagogical principles of Myles Horton and Paulo Freire. Consistent with those principles, many of the insights in this book emerge as meditations on respectful but challenging dialogues with undergraduates and colleagues with whom Fox has worked at the University of Michigan. From these diverse voices, Fox weaves an inspiring, multi-colored vision of higher education as a vital force for building what Freire called ‘a world in which it will be easier to love.’ This is a book to be read, re-read, cherished and shared by all who care about higher education and it relationship to human development and social justice.» (Ian Robinson, Lecturer and Research Scientist, Dept of Sociology and Residential College, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor)
«Helen Fox’s captivating storytelling from page one made me hungry to find out what insights she would share in answer to the questions that shaped this book, questions that resonate loudly with my experience as an educator for social change. I was not disappointed. She first offers a careful look behind the usual broad-brush characterizations of the Millennials, which, as a parent of a Millennial child just starting college, I found engaging, provocative, and full of ideas to help me understand and support my daughter in her college
«I am truly grateful to Helen and excited about this book. I think it should be mandatory reading for anyone serious about the role of and opportunities confronting higher education today. Further, I hope all of us will consider the deeper educational questions Helen raises in relationship to serving the intellectual and moral development needs of the Millennial generation. I come away from her text with a much clearer understanding of this generation of students and what I can do as an educator to support their growth and development. Further, I’m filled with a greater optimism that the world will benefit from this generation of leaders. Through her own reflective educational practice, Fox provides profound insights to those of us who are committed to the notion that the role of higher education is to create knowledge and transform individuals to bring about positive social change toward a more just and humane world. Dr. Fox has written with great insight and clarity about questions that my colleagues and I wrestle with everyday: how do we support students’ growth and development as they consider their role in making the world a better place? We toss around words like ‘justice, inclusion, mattering, non-violence’ as desired out-comes of higher education and the development of an educated person – but what educational structures are necessary to support students’ own discovery of the meaning of justice and role in bringing that about? I look forward to the many important conversations this book will inevitably stimulate!» (Susan A. Wilson, Associate Dean for Community Life, Academic Dean’s Office, Goddard College)
«This short, radiant, radical book is several things at once. It is a critical but loving assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the Millennial generation of undergraduates admitted to the elite American public universities. It is a wise and practical reflection on what faculty can do to encourage their students’ flourishing, both as subjects who arrive at university constrained by unexamined assumptions about race and class and by ‘banking education’ norms, and as agents who are already gifted and passionate about making a positive difference in the world, but too often lack the self-understanding and the insight into others very different from themselves, necessary to realize this aspiration. The book is enlivened by the kind of moral passion we find in Jonathan Kozol, and tempered by the grace and wisdom that comes from many years of practicing the pedagogical principles of Myles Horton and Paulo Freire. Consistent with those principles, many of the insights in this book emerge as meditations on respectful but challenging dialogues with undergraduates and colleagues with whom Fox has worked at the University of Michigan. From these diverse voices, Fox weaves an inspiring, multi-colored vision of higher education as a vital force for building what Freire called ‘a world in which it will be easier to love.’ This is a book to be read, re-read, cherished and shared by all who care about higher education and it relationship to human development and social justice.» (Ian Robinson, Lecturer and Research Scientist, Dept of Sociology and Residential College, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor)
«Helen Fox’s captivating storytelling from page one made me hungry to find out what insights she would share in answer to the questions that shaped this book, questions that resonate loudly with my experience as an educator for social change. I was not disappointed. She first offers a careful look behind the usual broad-brush characterizations of the Millennials, which, as a parent of a Millennial child just starting college, I found engaging, provocative, and full of ideas to help me understand and support my daughter in her college