learning by heart

Steward cowrote a book with Kent, “Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit,” published in 1992, six years after Kent’s death.

I felt it every time I visited, a surge of hope that came from interacting with true believers who were spending four or five hours every evening knocking on doors and calling voters, building networks of supporters in even the tiniest and most conservative towns, while learning by heart the intricacies of my husband’s stance on hog confinements or his plan to fix the immigration system.

“Our education system is about learning by heart and answering questions, limiting critical thinking and reading books.”

For weeks, Lena studies the notebooks, “learning by heart the passages I liked, the ones that thrilled me, … the ones that humiliated me.”

As a teacher, Kent was demanding and exacting, say Glascock and others, including former student Jan Steward, a graphic artist with whom Kent co-wrote the book "Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit."