Book Club Debut - The Courage to Teach

Hello!  Hopefully you have all had a blessed, wonderful holiday and you are rested and ready to continue this amazing year you've had so far. 

Becky Morgan, our host for this book club has written some thoughts she has had about the first chapter of our book.  Feel free to make comments on her post.   You can do this simply by clicking on "post a comment," and verifying it by typing in the verification code that appears once you click "post."  This is just to ensure that you are not a solicitor.  Please know that when you type in your e-mail address, no one will see it, it's just another way to verify who is posting.  Take a chance!   If you'd like to probe our minds in a different direction and see what happens, write a post for me, and I'll post it.   This is going to be fun! 

The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, Parker Palmer

Chapter 1: The Heart of a Teacher

Parker Palmer challenges assumptions that drive much of educational reform..."that meaningful change comes not from the human heart but from factors external to ourselves [budgets, methodologies, curricula, institutional restructuring, etc.].”  He powerfully argues that we must look within ourselves in order to best assist our students in becoming all they can be.  “To educate is to guide students on an inner journey toward more truthful ways of seeing and being in the world.”

Think about the mentors that you have had in your life.  How did you decide to teach?  What made your mentor great and what in you allowed the great mentoring to happen?

Reflect on how it is that we, as teachers, can provide our students with the mentors we wish to be.  How do we seek authority within ourselves?

Comments

[Laurie Roberts]

I've only read the first 15 pages, but I was instantly on board with Palmer's thesis. I remember in about my fifth year of teaching I told someone that teaching seems to amplify all of my best and worst characteristics. I hope that as the years have passed, it's been more of the former and less of the latter.

I also decided long ago that teaching is a talent--a gift--that not everyone has. In fact, I have wondered if some people are even capable of becoming effective teachers, simply because it seems so unnatural for them. Some of these people diligently try all the latest teaching ideas but are less effective than others who don't ever try anything new.

More later.

[Laurie Roberts]

I've only read the first 15 pages, but I was instantly on board with Palmer's thesis. I remember in about my fifth year of teaching I told someone that teaching seems to amplify all of my best and worst characteristics. I hope that as the years have passed, it's been more of the former and less of the latter.

I also decided long ago that teaching is a talent--a gift--that not everyone has. In fact, I have wondered if some people are even capable of becoming effective teachers, simply because it seems so unnatural for them. Some of these people diligently try all the latest teaching ideas but are less effective than others who don't ever try anything new.

More later.

[Laurie Roberts]

Sorry, don't know why that posted twice.

[Marie Wallace]

I liked the probing questions Becky provided, so I'm going to answer those. Think about the mentors that you have had in your life. How did you decide to teach? What made your mentor great and what in you allowed the great mentoring to happen?

The teachers that I most enjoyed were those teachers who were passionate about what they were doing. You could see the twinkle in their eye and the fire in their voice. I knew they loved kids and what they were doing...not a doubt in my mind!

Reflect on how it is that we, as teachers, can provide our students with the mentors we wish to be. The mentor I would most like to be is the one who is passionate about learning...taking every opportunity to explore this thing called knowledge. I also want my kids to feel confident in themselves as learners - knowing how to be resourceful and get the tools they need and know how to use the tools when they get them.
The biggest way I can assist them in this venture is to accept them as they are and how they come to me as learners. There is not one way, but many ways down this path. And lastly, I feel that I can be in service to them by being available to them when they are ready.

Thanks for doing this post Becky!

[Laurie Roberts]

My most memorable teaching mentor was my eighth grade science teacher, Gerald Bell (who is currently an assistant principal at Capital High School). I can't put my finger on exactly what he said or did, but I know that he rescued me that year. I was a new student at a big school, feeling very lost and afraid, and his classroom became a place of refuge for me.

I only hope that I have touched some hurting students with the kind of caring compassion he showed me all those years ago.

[John Poole]

Even though I have gone over to the dark side (administration), I found this book so intensely personal. I felt like the statements he made about getting in touch with our inner teacher was so important. We sell ourselves out to testing, to preparing for tests, and get away from why we really teach. This book spoke that to me loud and clear. I am excited to read the rest of the book.

[Tammy McMorrow]

How did I decide to teach? It happened a long, long time ago when I had chubby chipmunk cheeks. Besides the popular dream of someday swimming with the whales at Sea World, I've always wanted to teach and it all started in primary school. My primary teachers were my mentors. I don't think they did anything magical or extraordinary. They treated me like I was special, important, loved. In the midst of full days of learning from morning till afternoon, from August to June, I hope that my students feel the same way when they leave my room each day.

[Diana Hooley]

I've enjoyed reading these posts and Palmer's first chapters! Laurie, I've worked with Gerald Bell at Capital (as an Ed.D student) and can see why you like him. Also John, I agree, this book is spiritual in its approach to teaching. I first read it about 5 or so years ago when I was coaching debate--and could barely manage my students. Their attitudes and expectations were so out of line I thought. They acted immature--and then I began considering what was I doing as a teacher (or feeling: threatened maybe??) that was bringing the "uglies" out in them??? What was my inner landscape, to quote Palmer, like?
I also like what Palmer said about teaching not being just a bunch of techniques. I think Laurie commented she thought it was a gift. What comforted me most in the first chapter though, was Palmer saying how rotten and inadequate he felt some of the days he taught. I know those days. It does take courage to face a roomful of kids who've found out you don't have all the answers or maybe very few right answers yourself. This is an honest book. That feels good to me.

[Dena Duke]

Thanks for the comments. Very thought provoking. I need to get a copy and start reading!

[Dena Duke]

Sorry Diana. Those were my comments about needing to get the book. Don't know how they ended up there?

[Dena Duke]

Oh, I get it! duh...

[Cameron]

In the first chapter, Palmer stresses the importance of remembering our mentors so we can remember who we are in the teaching profession. He states than in adulthood he had trouble encountering mentors that seemed to disappear because he no longer needed them. I don’t really agree with this. No matter your qualifications, it is a big enough world to find and be influenced by others more skilled in certain areas than yourself. With the societal influx of the Internet, the mentors may not be as obvious as they used to be but they are still around. Nobody is perfect, and we should not forget the negative impacts some of our mentors may have made on us so that we do not repeat the same mistakes.

I agree with Palmer that honoring your soul is more valuable then long run financial security. It is important that teachers who have chosen the profession as a life long career remember that they are lucky to have the opportunities that many professions do not. In spite of dealing with policy makers that lack educational backgrounds, the question to ask yourself as a teacher is “What other line of work would I really rather do?” If you have been teaching for several years and still feel it is more negative than positive, then you need to ask yourself “Why am I still in this profession?”

[Diana Hooley]

Chapter IV Comments

I haven't heard anything from our discussion leader on Chapter 4 in The Courage To Teach, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and add my own blog.
This was a great chapter. Palmer is quite the philosopher. In it he deals with reality and relativity and what it means to be in an educational community.
He makes a distinction between intimacy and relationship communities and civic kinds of communities and says neither are real educational communities.
He also doesn't like the current business model of education with "student products and performance" reflective of teacher's performance.
He says that he believes an educational community's main goal should be "to create a space where the community of truth is practiced."
I like this because he means real truth, "great things" truths like the human spirit and beauty and courage and wonder--all embodied if we care to do the excavation, in our various content areas.
I have a book called "Americans Who Tell the Truth"--and it's full of wonderful quotes by Noam Chomsky and Terry Tempest Williams--truths about life and ambiguity in life.
Palmer mentions this too in this chapter. That real educators in a community of truth invite "diversity, ambiguity, and creative conflict".
Palmer sees the importance in not playing it safe in the classroom. He challenges me as an educator to be more genuine. He encourages me to invest more in the educational community and take some risks.