the courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life (10th anniversary edition)

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.

10*1 \

PALMER

:

anniversary

I

tsafei.

INNER of a TEACHER’S LIFE

the

CD

—

Included

A conversation with Parker

J.

Palmer

THE

COURAGE TO

TEACH “A profoundly moving, utterly passionate, and inspired

articulation of the call to,

pain and joy for

teaching.

of,

any and every

It is

teacher, at

and the

must reading

any

level.”

-JON KABAT'ZINN author of Wherever You Go, There You Are'

For nearly forty years, Parker Palmer has

worked on behalf of teachers and

others

who

choose vocations for reasons of the heart but

may

lose heart because of the troubled,

sometimes toxic systems in which they work.

Hundreds of thousands of readers have benefited from The Courage to Teach, which on an inner journey toward

takes teachers

reconnecting with themselves, their students,

and

their colleagues,

and toward reclaiming

vocational passion.

The Courage

Teach builds

to

on

simple

a

premise: good teaching cannot be reduced to

technique but

is

rooted in the identity and

integrity of the teacher.

Good

teaching takes

myriad fontis but good teachers share one

trait:

they are authentically present in the classroom,

deeply connected with their students and their subject.

These connections are held

the teacher’s heart

emotion, self.

spirit,

Good

— the

place

where

weave

a

intellect,

human life-giving web

and converge

teachers

in

(Continued on back flap)

in the

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2017 with funding from

China-America

Digital

Academic

Library

(CADAL)

https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780787996864

m,

U

«

1

«

CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR The Courage “This a

is

the best education

book

I’ve

powerful argument lor the need

nique toward

a learning

ops the deepest

we remember

human

that

it’s

to

to

Teach

.

.

.

read in a long time. Palmer provides

move from our

environment

overreliance on tech-

that both honors

capacities in children

and

teachers.

makes

book

is

just a chore,

not for you.

It’s

about time

the case eloquently.’’

— is

truly devel-

the person within the teacher that matters most in

education, and Palmer

“If teaching

and

You

and you are content

will be challenged to

Teacher magazine

to just ‘do chores,’ this

go beyond the

minimum

and pursue excellence. But rather than approaching teaching thing

we

just tolerate,

as

some-

Parker Palmer holds out the promise of it being

something we can celebrate.”

—Academy of Management “Wisdom

Who

literatures

have brought us important insight over the years.

thought more deeply about teaching and learning than Alfred

North Whitehead.^

two or three

years.

I

I

reread his short book The Aims of Education

.

.

.

every

think also of the wonderful books on teaching from

Gilbert Highet and Kenneth Eble. And, good as any of these, Parker Palmer’s The Courage to TeachT

— Theodore

J.

Marchese, vice president,

American Association

“Parker Palmer that this

anyone

book

who

journey for

is

is

a

a teacher’s teacher,

and

it is

for

Higher Education

when he

writes as a teacher

remarkably inspiring, almost religious companion

for

has taught or might be thinking of teaching as a vocational

life.

This book can change your

life if

you are

—

a teacher.”

Religious Education

‘management consultant’ whenever the hook says ‘teacher.’ With that, most all of it works and is |T|his is a book of philosophy, a book on character, on the useful. kind of people it takes to be great management consultants. No plati-

“I

recommend .

.

this

hook.

.

.

.

Just substitute

.

tudes; rather, a serious exploration into the heart

and soul of teaching

by an eloquent and thoughtful master. Serious, yet completely understandable and engrossing.”

—lounial of Management Consulting ‘‘Through

a series

of vignettes. Palmer encourages reHection and strives

to bolster readers’ initiative

awakening, and all

levels

and

and confidence. The Courage

Teach

to

is

an

touch that reaches out to teachers of

a gentle, directive

ages.”

— Childhood Education ‘‘This

book provides

a great deal of insight

and new ideas on good teach-

ing which cannot be reduced to techniques because identity

and

integrity of the teachers.

on the thread of connectedness. in a

.

. .

The book

it

comes from the

balances the concerns

ITlhe spiritual dimension

unique way by relating with other

—

is

explored

fields of study.”

International journal on World Peace

‘‘With The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer challenges us to recall our original motives for

becoming

teachers,

and he seeks

to

guide us

in the

process of reclaiming the sense of vocation capable of sustaining us in that striving.”

— ‘‘It

takes courage to teach

courage.^ This question

framed ents

in

is

in

today’s schools.

seldom asked and,

if

But what kind of

asked

at all,

and defending the profession against government is

an affair of the heart

change. For, as Parker Palmer argues in The Courage is

about commitment and connections.

among

is

usually

terms of violence prevention, dealing with overzealous par-

read that educational courage

ing

Transformations

It

is

is

spite.

a

So

welcome

to Teach, teach-

about relationships

students and subjects and the world that connects both.

about living and learning. Ultimately

it is

to

about the kind of

It is

commu-

nity necessary in classrooms for authentic education to take place.

And

the key to this kind of education

is

the

human

—

heart.”

Catholic

New

Times

From

and

leaders, teachers, thiiil^ers,

“To go on

this

of ‘the self

in

perspective.

writers

.

.

.

journey with Parker Palmer into the uncharted territory teaching

It is

not only viewing teaching horn a thrilling

is

also to he in the presence of a great teacher

new

who, hy

sha ring himself so openly and honestly, engages us in the very kind of

teaching he so eloquently describes.'”

^Russell E,dgerton, director

Pew

of educational

Charitable Trusts, and past president,

American Association

“A profoundly moving, and every

teacher, at

any

teaching.

of,

for

Higher Education

and inspired articulation

utterly passionate,

and the pain and joy

the call to,

programs.

It is

must reading

for

of

any

level.”

— Jon Kabat-Zinn,

author. Wherever You Go,

There You Are, and coauthor. Everyday Blessings

“This

l'K)ok is

for

of us

all

gcxH news

—

not just for classroom teachers and educators, but

who are committed

to the healing

— Joanna Macy, anyone

else.

officials,

author. World as Lover, World as Self

me more

“Parker Palmer has taught

The Courage

to

of our w^orld.”

about learning and teaching than

Teach

is

for all of us

counselors, as well as teachers.

It

of

who we

“This

is

a

].

do good work springs

Wheatley, author. Leadership and

New Science,

profoundly satisfying

insis-

are.”

— Margaret the

leaders, public

compassionately and

tently asks us to recognize that our capacity to

from our recognition

—

feast of a

and coauthor, A Simpler Way

hook

— —

of elegance and rigor, passion, and precision

written with a rare mix a gift to all

who

love

teaching and learning.”

— Diana Cdiapman Walsh, “Evokes the heart of what teachers pelling,

president, Wellesley Ck)llege

really do,

and does so

in a vivid,

com-

and soulful way.”

— Robert

Ck)les,

University Health Services,

Harvard University

OTHER BOOKS PARKER

J.

BY

PALMER

The Promise of Paradox

The Company of Strangers To

Know as We Are Known The Active Life Let Your Life Speal{

A Hidden The Courage

to

Wholeness

Teach Guide for Reflection and Renewal

iSJOSSEY'BASS

The Courage Teach

to

EXPLORING THE INNER LANDSCAPE OF A teacher's

life

Tenth Anniversary Edition

Parker

J.

Palmer

BICENTENNIAL j
r

John Wiley & Sons

© ©

C'opyright

(d)-R( )M

1W8, 2007 by john Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007 by ('enter for ('ourage & Renewal. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Palmer, Parker

The courage Parker p.

J.

I.

to teach

Palmer.

—

:

exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s

10th anniversary ed.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN- 13: 978-0-7879-9686-4 1.

To

317-572-3986, or fax 317-572-4002.

lossey-Bass also publishes

/

was written

Teachers.

2.

LB1775.P25

Teaching.

3.

(cloth)

Learning.

1.

Title.

2007

371.1—dc22

2007016100 United States of America

Printed

in the

TENTH

.\NNI\'ERS,\RY EDITION

Hli Printing .10 9

876543

life

content that appears

Contents

Foreword

to the

Tenth Anniversary Edition

Gratitudes

xix

Introduction: Teaching from Within I

The Heart of a in

II

1

Teacher;tid^ntj tY^!a^

Teaching

9

A Culture ofT^ea^f^ducation

and the

DisconnectedHife III

35

The Hidden Wholeness: Paradox

in

Teaching

and Learning

IV

Knowing

in

63

Community: Joined by

the

Grace

of Great Things

V

Teaching

in

91

Community:

A

Subject-Centered

Education

VI

Learning

in

117

Community: The Conversation

of Colleagues

VII

Divided

ix

No More:

145

Teaching from a Heart

of Hope

169

vii

Afterword:

The New

Professional:

Education for Transformation

191

Notes

215

The Author

225

The Center About

the

for

Courage & Renewal

CD

227 229

Index

231

Vlll

Foreword

to the

Tenth Anniversary Edition

During

the decade

me

took

it

to write

The Courage

ing the Inner Landscape of a Teachers Life,

spent

I

to Teach:

Explor-

many hours pon-

dering the past and peering into the future.

My

Buddhist friends

me

tell

Every wisdom tradition urges us nal

now,” not

past

in the illusion

to

this

is

not a good

way

to live.

dwell in the reality of the “eter-

of what once was or might be.

and future are sources no writer can do without,

And

yet,

rich as they are

memory and fantasy, which calls into question the credibility anyone who writes about the inner life, not least myself! with

But the truth

is

that

wrote

I

this

thirty years in education, trying to

always thrilled and

terrified

of this teacher’s

hoping

spiritual out.

I

life,

to find

ways

the practice of anyone

stand

I

wrote,

good

wh ^

I

was

why

teaching had

to clarify the intellectual, emotional,

and

to

deepen the self-understanding and thus about teaching as

much

as

life,

m u st

I

hoped

live

to

—and

fi

do.

do more than make the

examined

li

v es

and

try to

animates their actions for better and for worse.

impact of our

cational externals

I

also looking ahead. In the midst of a culture

te achers

to anticipate the

testing

understand

was exploring the inner landscape

I

who cares

that devalues the inner case that

book while looking back on

dynamics that form or deform our work from the inside

wanted

As

me.

of

— including

nd ways

society’s

and mindless standardized

and support the inner journey

the heart of authentic teaching, learning,

IX

wanted

growing obsession with edu-

relentless

to protect

1

unde r-

and

living.

at

— As the the

past recedes,

we can

me

Teach has helped

to

more

see

So writing

clearly

how

this

book

me a of my predictions and the aptness of my

emerged from my own teaching experience. chance to check the accuracy

It

has also given

prescriptions for a future that at the time this book lished

it.

for this tenth anniversary edition of

Foreword and Afterword

The Courage

gain perspective on

was

first

pub-

consisted of events that had “not yet gone through the for-

still

mality of taking place.”'

Prehistory Revisited Because

began writing The Courage

I

was published, me. In

fact,

during

much

of which

it

anniversary feels more like a twen-

this book’s tenth

tieth to

Teach a decade before

to

throughout the book’s decade-long prehistory I

had only

swarm of half-baked

a title, a

heaps of scrap paper covered with scribbled notes, and page

ideas,

after

page of unusable text

book

in progress that

—

gave so many talks referring

I

some people got

the impression

it

to

was

my

a fait

accompli. I

row

can

my

get

I

amused when

from

That fact that

a living,

took

am

I

I

it

tell

to Teach,

wished

that

a very

I

decade

a

too,

I,

callers

it

anywhere.

were generally not

had

I

trying to bor-

a

copy but that

we

actually wrote the thing.

to write this

slow writer.

am

is

can’t find

I

them

me I

but

My

to wait until

them

“Someone

librarians:

hands on one.^”

told

I

would both have

a

calls

copy of The Courage

a

How

began getting

When

a rewriter.

I

book

is

people ask

doubt that

I

due

partly to the

me what do I

for

have ever published

page that has not been refried eight or ten or twelve times. As

true of

mit or

it

many

writers,

to paper.

know

The

But the

giving

do not begin with

a clear idea

very act of writing helps

me

and then com-

discover what

I

feel

about something, and since each succeeding draft drives

that discovery a

due only

I

is

to

me

little

deeper,

fact that

my

it

took

slow hand.

I

it is

me

hard to a

know when

decade

also credit a

to stop.

to write this

book

is

not

generous providence for

time to accrue and assimilate two experiences without

which the book would have been

•

less

grounded,

less

X

Foreword to the Tenth Anniversary Edition

honest, and

hence

less helpful.

Today

I

Of

One

was

of these

count both of them

as blessings.

course, the failure did not feel like a blessing at the time.

Four years before The Courage book was

gleam

my

eye

Teach was published, while the

to

—

or a stone in

my

depending

shoe,

still

a

—

spent a year as the Eli Lilly Visiting Professor at Berea

on the day

I

in

College in Kentucky. By the end of that year, of two things related to for

other a success.

a failure, the

me) and why

humility as

I

I

book:

this

needed

why

the

title

I

had been reminded

was on

target (at least,

about teaching with as

to write

much

could muster.

Berea College has served the young people of Appalachia since 1855. Its liberal arts

program

is

offered tuition-free to students from

one of the most impoverished regions of the United

whom

are given

finance their

on-campus

jobs to help operate the college

education.

had

own

graduate school days the 1960s,

when

at the

I

year

As an

I

of poverty. Teaching

taught

at

for the

dents and me, and

who had

I

— frequently Worse

is

at a college

with a

vocational wish

a cliche

worth attending

my

failed because still,

I

to teach across

key concept

a

I

was slow

life.

my

it.

stu-

The Courage

in

I

My own to

lacked personal knowledge of to

acknowledge and repair

my

ignorance.

These professional struggles were amplified by personal and

to.

only read about Appalachia,

was often unable

—

social

list.

depth of the culture gap between

“capacity for connectedness”

own

my

Berea ever since

Berea was one of the most difficult of

affluent northerner

“the other.”

my

had long been high on

was unprepared

Teach

to

University of California at Berkeley in

“Be careful what you wish for”

The

drawn

felt

and

higher education was roundly and rightly criticized

for ignoring the victims

justice mission

States, all of

as

I

insist in this

the professional. as light. In the

“We

loss,

book, the personal can never be divorced from teach

who we

middle of my year

subzero January morning,

I

are” in times of darkness as well

at Berea, in the

learned that

my

small hours of a

beloved father had sud-

denly and unexpectedly died. Far removed from the consolation of family and old friends,

Every day of

my

I

was devastated.

second semester

at

Berea

mountain of personal grief and professional

I

failure to

xi

Foreword

to the

had

Tenth Anniversary FAition

to

climb

a

drag myself

hack into the classroom while “the courage riowecl in

me, mostly ehhing.

or money, hut

thy for teachers tains as

it is

My

me

left

it

whose

would not repeat

I

that year for

fame

with a pearl of great price: deepened empa-

work

daily

is

much about climhing moun-

as

about teaching and learning.

other pivotal experience during the ten-year prehistory of

The Courage

to

Teach was an unqualified success, not because of

hut because of the people with

whom

shared

I

1996, at the request of the Fetzer Institute financial

and

to teach” ehhecl

and

staff support,

I

it.

From

and with

its

designed and facilitated

a

me

1994 to

generous

program

“The Courage to Teach.” Working with twenty-two K— 12 became an “inwardteachers from southwestern Michigan, hound” guide, helping them explore the inner landscape of their

called

I

through eight quarterly retreats of three days each, following

lives

the cycle of the seasons.

Technically,

me.

I

led this

program. Truthfully, those teachers led

learned lasting lessons from them about the discouraging,

and sometimes cruel conditions

oppressive, lic

I

school teachers

in

which too many pub-

must work; about the willingness

of these

good

people to look within themselves for sustenance instead of waiting

someone to supply it; about the heart-deep commitment that keeps them coming back to the classroom their commitment to the for

—

well-being of our children.

My

me

two-year journey with public school teachers persuaded

beyond doubt that they and

their kin are

among

the true culture

heroes of our time. Daily they must deal with children

been damaged by

social pathologies that

no one

their classrooms,

and

failures.

And

have

else has the will to

cure. Daily they are berated by politicians, the public, for their alleged inadequacies

who

and the press

daily they return to

opening their hearts and minds

in

hopes of helping

children do the same.

The hard with teachers

times

in the

I

had with teaching and the good times

decade before The Courage

lished helpecD^ae write this

The wo rd^^jT^s/h^ j ng or both

.

book from

a place

to

I

had

Teach was pub-

of passion in myself.

of course, can

mean

intense love or intense suffer^

go hand

hand

in

>lh£-^:^wo

in

language as well as

xii

Foreword to the Tenth Anniversary Edition

life.

— The Future Today,

a

decade

The Courage

after

to

ten years’

worth

ing place”

— how accurate was my

of events

Is

Here

Teach was published

— now

that

have “gone through the formality of takcrystal hall regarding the future

of education, the needs of teachers, and the service

I

hoped

this

hook

might render?

My

instinct that education

externals, shrinking the space

would become more obsessed with

needed

teachers and students, was, I’m sad to say,

one hardly need consult the Oracle tion.

The

No

of

e xcesses

at

support the inner

to

all

Of course,

too accurate.

Delphi to

Child Left Behind

make

lives of

such a predic-

(NCLB)

—

a set

of

unfunded, even unfounded federal mandates that have done much to

undermine teacher morale and

"are the ine vitable

and

outcomes of a min d-set that cares abo ut weigh ts

who

those

say that

we need weights and measures

to enforce accountability in education,

we

my

response

is,

yes,

do, but only under three conditions that are not being

We need iri

and learnin g

m ore than meaning.

me asures To

teachi ng

stifle real

to

make

sur e

(1)

that

we measure

the context of authentic eclucation,

tf

where

^gs

in

order

of course

met

today.

worth measuring

rote learning counts for

we know how to m»^n)ur

can open up, or shut down, the capacity for connectedness on which

good teaching depends.

The mode

of

knowing

that

dominates education creates

dis-

connections between teachers, their subjects, and tbeir students because as

it is

rooted in

fear.

something we can achieve only by disconnecting ourselves, physi-

cally

and emotionally, from the thing we want Why.^ Because

our subjective of

This mode, called objectivism, portrays truth

it.

No

if

we

lives will

matter what

get too close to

“it”

is

—an episode

— objectivism claims

we

that

tort

a Pandora’s

box of opinion,

our knowledge once the

relying exclusively on reason

swayed by subjective desire

mind and

the senses in this

in history, a

and

—and

a thing ceases to be

self

it is

it

is

the

enemy most

and ignorance that

open.

We

facts, logic

lest

it

is

keep the

a

will dis-

lid

shut by

and data that cannot be

The

role of the

our knowledge of it be tainted. is

feared not only because

creates relationships

work

to be

not to connect us to the world

an object and becomes

lives

the things of the

it

conta-

between those

relationships are contaminating as well.

— whether ecosystem — might our

know

(or so the theory goes).

In objectivism, subjectivity

minates things but because

creature from

phenomenon of human

can

bias,

lid Hies

scheme

but to hold the world at bay,

things and us

impure contents of

afar.

For objectivism, the subjective

—

know.

contaminate that thing and our knowledge

world truly and well only from

feared

the

it,

the wild, a passage in great literature, or a

behavior

to

When

a vital, interactive part

of

an indigenous people, or an

of art,

get a grip on us, biasing us toward

it,

thus

threatening the purity of our knowledge once again.

So objectivism, driven by

fear,

keeps us from forging rela-

tionships with the things of the world.

Its

modus operand!

is

sim-

when we distance ourselves from something, it becomes an object; when it becomes an object, it no longer has life; when it is ple:

lifeless,

it

cannot touch or transform

us, so

thing remains pure.

52

The Courage to Teach

our knowledge of the

For objectivism, any way ot knowing that

rec]uires subjective

involvement between the knower and the known primitive, unreliable,

and even dangerous. The

as irrational, true feeling is

regarded as

intuitive

derided

is

dismissed as sentimental, the imagination

is

seen as chaotic and unruly, and storytelling

and

is

is

labeled as personal

pointless.

That

is

why

music,

art,

and dance are

at the

bottom of the aca-

*

demic pecking order and the “hard” sciences are

why

at the top.

That

is

every “soft” discipline in the curriculum has practitioners doing

who who an-

research that ismiore objectivist than thou: literary scholars

count adverbs rather than explore meanings, psychologists alyze the data of

human

behavior as

if

people had no

more inner

life

than Styrofoam. Years ago, Alfred North Whitehead declared that “inert ideas”

were the bane of higher education, deadening the process

of teach-

ing and learning for students and teachers alike.^ But for objectivism, the only

good idea

butterfly,

an inert idea

is

that, like the lepidopterist’s prize

no longer elusive and on the wing but has been chloro-

is

formed, pinned, boxed, and labeled. This way of knowing der the world to

pay for what they I

us

lifeless

—but

call

that, say

its

proponents,

evils

ren-

a small price

objective truth.

have not forgotten that objectivism originated,

from the

is

may

of reckless subjectivity.

The

in part, to save

victims of the Black

Death would have benefited from the objective knowledge

that their

suffering was caused by Heas from infected rats, not by offenses against God.

someone

The

called

countless

women burned

at the

them witches bear mute testimony

stake because to the cruelties

that subjectivity can breed.

Objectivism

set

out to put truth on firmer ground than the

we can be grateful. But history is full of ironies, and one of them is the way objectivism has bred new versions of the same evils it tried to correct. Two examples come quickly to mind: the rise of modern dictatorships and the character whims of princes and

and

priests,

for that

of contemporary warfare.

A

good case can he made

free people

from the clutches

that objectivism,

of arbitrary

spired with other forces to deliver

Culture of Fear

to

power, has sometimes con-

modern people

53

A

which intended

into the clutches

of totalitarianism.

swers to

questions were possible

all

were glad

As people became convinced answers

to give those

knowledge and turn

—and

as specialists

— people began agenda

of social vulnerability, proclaiming,

to seize

the stage

power

know

alone

“I

emerged who

to distrust their

Thus

to authorities for truth.

for “authorities” with a political

that objective an-

own

was

set

moments

at

the truth that will

save you! Pall in and follow me.”

The

cruelties of

run amok,

jectivity

consequence

a

but

safe.

gone mad. Many Americans found

acceptable, even popular, because

We

were applauded

we

killed tens of

was fought with

it

thousands of Iraqis

we saw were shadowy images

all

in

TV

at distances that in the

of destruction

rooms throughout the land,

for the capacity to kill at great

the

up

close, subjectively, a

American people than

came

war considerably

the objectivist

Vietnam, our soldiers came face

to face

that

so grateful are

we were

war

forced

popular with

in the Persian Gulf. In

with the enemy, our civilians

into a national slough of guilt

Bush declared

— images

less

Americans, and

face to face with the deaths of fifty thousand

we sank

Gulf War,

remove.

Contrast this with the war in Vietnam, which to fight

of ob-

of the witch-hunt were the

technology that allows us to do violence to others

keep us

outcome

are another

just as the cruelties

of subjectivity

War

the Gulf

modern warfare

and

grief.

When

that our victory in the Persian Gulf

President

had

finally

allowed us to “kick the Vietnam syndrome,” he was celebrating the

triumph

of objective

Why lence?

the

does objectivism conspire with totalitarianism and vio-

From

for truth:

detachment over subjective intimacy.

it

the outset, the objectivist impulse

was

a quest

a fear-driven overkill of the subjectivity that

made

premodern world dangerous. Objectivism was never content

quarantine subjectivity the

was more than

germ of “self’

in

order to stop

its

to secure objective truth

senters to secure the “public order,”

spread.

—

It

aimed

to

at killing

just as dictators kill dis-

and warriors

kill

the

enemy

to

secure the “peace.”

“Killing the self”

found

when

at the heart

is

not an image of

my

of the objectivist literature

objectivism was in

full

invention. itself.

A

It

can be

century ago,

Bower, the philosopher Karl Pearson

54

The Courage to Teach

,

wrote an influential book called The Grammar of Science

made

a classic case for objective

forming

of

judgment upon

a

.

.

.

which he

knowledge, arguing that “the habit facts

unbiased by personal feeling

what may he termed the

characteristic of

in

frame

scientific

is

of mind.”^

Unfortunately, Pearson accompanied his classic case with a classic

Freudian

slip:

“The

at self-elimination

diction, but

I

call

-in it

when

prophecy:

a

man

has above

its

in the

all

Some may

his judgments.””

objectivism has pursued erable success

scientific

things to strive

call

ambiguous

it

century since Pearson wrote,

goal of eliminating the self with consid-

student must ask

he can use “I”

if

in

an auto-

biography.

My case against objectivism jectivism, fearful of both the

has been normative to this point: ob-

knowing

self

from world and deforms our

tances self

and the thing known,

relationships with our subjects,

our students, and ourselves. But an even more against this

knowing

mode of knowing:

it

fails to

telling case

we

made

actually happens, even at the heart of science it

how

itself.

at

arm’s length:

managed to build the objectivist wall between the knower known, we could know nothing except the wall itseji. Srirnr^^

ever

and the

requires an

engagement with the world,

knower and it

can be

give a faithful account of

No scientist knows the world merely by holding if

dis-

the

a live en coun ter

known. That encounter has moments

would not be an encounter without moments

between the

of distance, but

of intimacy as well.

Knowing of any sort is relational, animated by a desire to come into deeper community with what we know. Why does a historian study the “dead” past.^ To reveal how much of it lives in us today. Why does a biologist study the “mute” world of nature.^ To allow us to hear its voice speaking of how entwined we are in life’s ecology. Why does a literary scholar study the world of “Action”.^ To show us that the facts can never be understood except in communion with the imagination.

Knowing

is

how we make community

other, with realities that

sue of knowledge. in the process, to

alter us.

At

its

would elude

Knowing

is

a

with the unavailable

us without the connective

human way

to seek relationship and,

have encounters and exchanges that

deepest reaches,

knowing

is

55

A

Culture of Fear

tis-

will inevitably

alw ays communal.

1 he now-faniou^ story of biologist Barbara McClintock

mines the

know

fact that vve

disconnecting from

became fascinated transposition.

modern

who

died in 1992 at age ninety,

early in her career with the mysteries of genetic

Though

her research was often dismissed as wildly

unorthodox, she pursued of

by connecting with the world, not by

McClintock,

it.

illu-

genetics,

it

into discoveries that

and she was honored

changed the map

1983 with a Nobel

in

Prize.

McClintock did not objectify her

approach

subject, did not

with the textbook notion that her task was to analyze Instead, she approached genetic material

hits. it

could best be understood as

writer has said, McClintock

a

it

it

into data

on the assumption

that

communal phenomenon. As one

“made

a crucial discovery

by recogniz-

more complex and interdependent than anyone had believed. By observing how genes function in their environment rather than regarding them merely as isolated entities, she discovered that bits of genes can move about ing that the genetics of living organisms

is

on chromosomes.”^

When

Evelyn Fox Keller interviewed McClintock

write her biography,

it

became

order to

communal premise of relationship among genes:

clear that the

McClintock’s work went well beyond the it

in

included the relationship between the genes and the scientist

who

studied them. Keller ther

wanted

and deeper

to

know, “What enabled McClintock

into the mysteries of genetics than her colleagues.^”

McClintock’s answer, Keller she

tells

us one

tells us, is

must have the time

simple:

“Over and over again

to look, the patience to ‘hear

the material has to say to you,’ the openness to

Above

all,

Of

to see fur-

one must have

‘a

come

to you.’

feeling for the organism.’

course, McClintock’s science

analytical thinking

‘let it

what

was distinguished by

and impeccable data; one does not win

a

precise

Nobel

Prize without them. But data and logic and the distance they provide are only one pole of the paradox of great science.

arguably the greatest biologist of our century,

is

When asked

McClintock, to

name

the

heart of her knowing, she invariably uses the language of relationship, of connectedness, of

community. As one commentator puts

56

The Courage to Teach

it.

McClintock “gained valuable knowledge by empathizing with her corn plants, submerging herself

boundary between object and

world and dissolving the

observer.’’"

sums up McClintock’s genius, and

Keller

knowing,

in their

in a single,

luminous sentence: McClintock,

in

her relation

form of love, love that allows

to ears of corn, achieved “the highest

for intimacy

the genius of all great

without the annihilation of difference.”'^

These remarkable words describe not only the heart

of

Barbara

McClintock’s science hut also the heart of every authentic relationship that a

human

being might have

other people, with things of the ing and of living that has }for,

even

a

need

for, its

— with

spirit.

history,

They

moved beyond

with nature, with

describe a

way

of

know-

fear of the other into respect

otherness.

The real agenda driving objectivism is not to tell the truth about knowing but to shore up our self-aggrandizing myth that knowledge is power and that with it we can run the world People ofte n

an effor t to deny their fear s

lie in

b oth our knowledge and o ur power t ressinp^

evidence before our

own

—an d

in

eyes:

objectivism

abou t

lies

hopes of avoiding the dis-

we

are ruining, not running,

die3iiOi4d.

Modern knowledge not to control

more fail.

its

clear each

has allowed us to manipulate the

but

fact that

becomes

human

systems

fate (to say

nothing of our own), a

day

ecosystem dies and our

as the

wo rld

Indeed, by disconnecting us from the world, objectivism has led

us into actions so inharmonious with reality that catastrophe seems

we stay the course. Objectivism, far from telling the about how we know, is a myth meant to feed our fading fan-

inevitable if truth

tasy of science, technology,

power, and control.

we dare to move through our fear, to practice knowing as form of love, we might abandon our illusion of control and enter a If

a

partnership with the otherness of the world. By finding our place in the ecosystem of reality, life-giving fully in in

we might

and which are not

our

own

destinies,

see

—and

more

clearly

which actions are

in the process participate

and the destiny

of the world, than

— —

our drive for control. This relational way of knowing

love takes

away

fear

and co-creation replaces control

57

A

Culture of Fear

is

in

a

more

we do which

way

of

— knowing

on

that can hel}\us reclaim the capacity for connectedness

which goocLteaching depends.

Not Afraid

Be Fear

is

everywhe re

—

and

dents, in ourselves

and invaded by reality for the

fear,

Fear

how

can

so fundamental to the

is

spiritual traditions originate in

our

lives.

.

we transcend

in that direction

With

it

human

and reconnect with

The

the one

is

only path

marked

all

condition that

they propose to take us beyond fear,

can escape

and enter

fear’s paralysis

all

its

know

the great

effects

on

proclaim the same core mes-

“Be not afraid.” Though the traditions vary widely

sage:

I

“spiritual.”

an effort to overcome

different words, they

our stu-

in

from everything Surrounded

cuts us off

it

our institutions,

in

sake of teaching and learning?

might take us

that

our culture,

in

in the

ways

hold out the same hope:

all

we

where encoun-

a state of grace

ters

with otherness will not threaten us but will enrich our work and

our

lives. It is

important to note with care what that core teaching does

and does not fears

—and

“ say.

if

it

Be not afraid ” does not say

did,

perfection. Instead,

we

could dismiss

we do

says that

it

it

as

that

we

should not have

an impossible counsel of

not need to be our fear s, quite a

different proposition.

As

my that in

young

a

teacher,

craft so well, be so

yearned for the day when

my

would know

competent, so experienced, and so powerful,

late fifties,

but

I

I

know

need not be

that

my

Each time

I

walk into

myself from which place within

my

my

day

fears

inner landscape from which

I

will

—

never come.

can speak and

a classroom,

I

I

can have

a fearful place:

stand sorneplace else in

but

my

I

always have

I

my

act.

teaching will come, just as

fear,

will

can choose the place within

my

I

can choose the

teaching will be aimed.

I

can teach from curiosity or

hope or empathy or honesty, places that are fears.

I

for there are other places in

students toward which

need not teach from

my

I

could walk into any classroom without feeling afraid. But now,

I

fears,

I

as real within

need not be fear

inner landscape.

58

The Courage to Teach

—

if

I

am

me

as are

willing to

We yearn

ter description ot that

know of no betpoem quoted at the

and

tor a ditterent place to stand,

yearning than the Rilke

I

head ot the Introduction:

Ah, not

to he cut oft,

not through the slightest partition shut out from the law of the

— What

stars.

/

The if

inner

is it?

not intensified sky,

hurled through with birds and deep

with the winds of homecoming.'^

“Pur off”

njstom ary

IQ

of being. B ut there

state

the consta nt y earning for connectedness a yearning ,

within us

—“Ah!”— is

to live

withoutTR-e slightest partition between our souls and the distant

between ourselves and the world’s otherness. with the other because

nity at

home

in

our

lives,

we know

We yearn

that with

no longer strangers

to

commu-

for

we would

it

stars,

feel

more

one another and aliens

to

the earth.

But the “homecoming” of which Rilke speaks has two qualities

make

that

First,

own

it is

it

quite different from our conventional image of home.

inner, not outer.

— but by

the

are in or

not a place that

is

same token, we cannot be banned from

cannot be stolen from

we

This home

us.

how many

No matter

we can

it,

and

it

where we are or what condition

obstacles are before us,

we can always come

home through a simple inward turning. Second, when we make that inward turn, the home we find is not a closed and parochial place in which we can hide, from which we can neither see nor be seen. Instead, this home is as open and vast as the sky itself. Here we are at home with more than our own familiar thoughts and those people who think like us. We are at home back

in a

universe that embraces both the smallness of “I” and the vastness

and does so with consummate

ease. In this

home,

of all that

is

we know

ourselves not as isolated atoms threatened by otherness hut

“not

I,”

as integral parts of the great

web of life.

In that

knowing, we are

taken beyond fear toward wholeness. In response to the question

“How

the fear"that destmys coni^tedness?”

I

am

59

A

Culture of Fear

can

we move

saying,

hevon^^l

“By reclaiming

the connectednes s th at takes a wav — fear.” •

my

case

— hut

N

that

is

pre cisely h ow the spiritual

no beginning or end, where,

where we

started

question

is

/And know the whether we choose

mov

life

^*^,

as Eliot writes,

place for the

first

iq rirrlp*;

we

time.”'^

“arrive

Th e onl y

to stand outsid e of the circle or

it .

H ow fears that

do we get

into that circle?

keep us disconnected, what

hands with others? The truth

human

In the

around

and

'"7

^

^

that have

wi thin

realiz e the circularity of ^

I

_

brings,

is

Our

will

move

that the circle

is

are gripped by the us toward joining

already in us.

is

psyche, apparent opposites chase each other

in circles all the time: love

desire.

When we

and

hate, laughter

intense fear of connectedness,

and

tears, fear

and the challenges

it

pursued by an equally intense desire for connectedness, and

the comforts

it

For

offers.

the fearful efforts

all

ourselves by disconnecting, the

human

n ection "Ah, not to be cut off.

to protect

soul yearns eternally for con-

We can get

.

:

we make

into the circle that

is

already within us by abandoning ourselves to the yearnings that run just

behind, or ahead

Sometimes enced

K— 12

and deep of even the

fears. is

a

simple step. In a group of experi-

worked with

six feet six

voice.

man

I

our

takes

all it

teachers

shop teacher,

of,

No

inches

tall,

for

two years was

a high school

weighing 240 pounds,

one ever thought of

this

man

athletic

as afraid, not

himself.

For several years, the principal tbe teacher to attend a

summer

at his school

institute

had been pressing

on technology. The shop

curriculum, said the principal, had to be modernized, and quickly, or the students

would be

Nonsense, at that institute

lost in the past.

this fearless teacher replied.

is

probably

just a fad.

dents need to learn the basics

There

tools.

will be plenty of

Even

if

The it

technology touted

isn’t,

high school stu-

— hands-on work with time

later

on

materials and

for fancy refinements

of

their technique.

The shop

teacher and his principal became locked in a de-

moralizing cycle of demands and refusals, each exacerbating the other.

Their relations grew adversarial and strained. As the shop

teacher participated in our group, that brokenness weighed heavy

on

his heart.

60

The Courage to Teach

— Then one day that the cycle

make its

his

the shop teacher

came

to a

meeting and

had been broken. His principal had called him

demands once more. This

and

said, “I

know why.

I’m afraid

me

has passed

still

did,

afraid I

a silence,

too,” he said. “Let’s

They

—

by, iifraid

There was

go

want

don’t

am

a

to

go

has-been as

now my held

it,

afraid

I

a teacher.”

and then the principal spoke: “I’m

afraid,

to the institute together.”

and they reclaimed and deepened

and the shop teacher

at his prin-

to that institute, hut

won’t understand

I

in to

time, instead of arguing the mer-

of the traditional shop curriculum, the teacher looked

cipal

told us

feels

he

is

their friendship,

making progress toward moderniz-

ing the curriculum and revitalizing his vocation.

This teacher’s breakthrough did not directly involve adopting a

new

technique for teaching; indeed,

anything

at all.

it

did not directly involve

His breakthrough was into a new way of being, into

the realization that he could have fear but did not need to be fear that he could speak ful rather

act

from

than from the fear

The shop just

and

a place of honesty

about being fear-

itself.

teacher honored a yearning within himself that was

behind, or ahead

of, his fear,

his principal, his students, his

Sometimes the way beyond

the yearning not to be cut off

world of work, or

fear

is

A

his teacher’s heart.

just that simple.

61

Culture of Fear

from

N

f (

Chapter

III

The Hidden Wholeness Paradox

Teaching and Learning

in

There

is

in all visible things

an invisible fecundity, a a a

dimmed

meek

light,

namelessness,

hidden wholeness.

This mysterious Unity and Integrity is

Wisdom,

the

Mother

of

all,

Natura naturans.

— Thomas Merton, “Hagia Sophia”' Thinking the World Together The

culture of disconnection that undermines teaching and

learning

ern

is

driven partly by

commitment

fear.

But

it is

also driven by

to thinking in polarities, a

63

our West-

thought form that

thinking

is

when we

so

try

cmbccickd

—and my own words

In earlier chapters,

way we approach nique,

I

we

our culture that

in

rarely escape

To

teaching.

imbalances

obsession with objective knowledge,

and I

integrity.

To

correct our

stressed subjective engage-

ment. To correct our excessive regard tor the powers of

ture,

power of emotions

My

intent

it is

hard

was

to

do

to freeze, or free, the

But

to rebalance the scales.

that without

slamming

in a

intellect,

mind. polarizing cul-

I

may

be mistaken for

someone who excuses poor technique, urging teachers

who

who doesn’t

it is”;

care about the content ot your

thoughts, just as long as you “share what you

said.

obvious

just to “be

believes there are no standards for truth, just

“whatever you think

It is

I

the scales in the opposite

direction. In arguing tor the neglected pole,

themselves”;

in the

correct our overemphasis on tech-

stressed the teacher’s identity

stressed the

even

prove the point.

will

tried to correct several

1

it,

(I

feel.”

hope!) that these are distortions of what

But we distort things

way

this

the time because

all

have

I

we

are

trained neither to voice both sides of an issue nor to listen with both ears.

The problem

versation fiiir

some

goes deeper than the had habit of competitive con-

of us have:

me

tell

your

or foul, to argue the other side!

thesis

It is

and

[ess series of

any way,

We see ev frA'rhinp-

or that, plus or minus, on or off, black or white;

an

will find

we

rooted in the fact that

look at the world through analytical lenses.

ality into

I

rhi individual and

‘little*’ sitnrrpz

of the disciplifies and tradiuon. A learning space should not be hlled with abstractions so bloated that no room remains for

the “big” stories

the small but soulful realities that

space there must be ample

of personal experience

stories at

room

grow

our students’

in

for the little stories of individuals,

which the

in

lives. In this

student’s inner teacher

is

work. But when

we

my

little story,

or yours,

our only point of reference,

is

become lost in narcissism. So th e big stories of the disci must also be told in the learning spa ce stori es that are uni-

easily

plines

—

versal in scope a nd

and archetypal

depth, that frame ou r perso nal tales

in

learn to listen to the big stories with the

when

dividuals

5.

they

tell

same

us the tales of their

must help students

respect

we

accord in-

lives.

The space should support solitude and surrou nd it with

the rcr

demands solitude— not only

in the

sou rces of community. Learning sense that

st udents

r^d

time alone to

refiect

the deeper sense that t he integrity of the

respecte^not violated, also

We

help us understand what they mean.

we

if

—

demands community-

and absorb but

tTip«"t-ii-ir^n

static

advances our knowledge

of truth

sometimes raucous but always communal,

which

and

and dynamic.

through conHict, not competition. Competition

sum game

obser-

complementing each

vations and interpretations, correcting and other, torn by conflict in this

—sharing

as th e

itsel f,

as

that kee ps testing old con-

.

the current conclusions in order to get in on

it is

not our knowledge of conclusions that keeps

106

The Courage to Teach

— US in the truth.

our commitment

It is

to the conversation itself,

our

willingness to put forward our observations and interpretations for

community and

testing by the

we must know how to observe and

the truth, ten,

to return the favor to others.

with passion and with discipline,

reflect

in the circle

To

he in

and speak and

lis-

gathered around a

given subject. truth

If

an eternal conversation whose conclusions and norms

is

keep changing, what happens

do not think

that

of objectivity

—

As

far as

I

knowledge

the

subject

my

I

anything about the nature

of truth alters

except the objectivist myth.

can

tell,

of procedural rules.

I

knowledge we

the only “objective”

comes from

that

and debating

what we regard

image

knowledge.^

to the idea of objective

a

community

as objective

is

of people looking at a

framework

their observations within a consensual

know of no field, from

possess

science to religion,

where

knowledge did not emerge from long and

complex communal discourse

no

that continues to this day,

field

where

the facts of the matter were delivered fully formed from on high.

The of truth

firmest foundation of all our

is

the

community

This community can never offer us ultimate certainty

itself.

not because

knowledge

its

process

is

flawed but because certainty

is

beyond the

grasp of finite hearts and minds. Yet this community can do rescue us from ignorance, bias, and self-deception to

if

we

—

to

its

to

are willing

submit our assumptions, our observations, our theories

ourselves

much

— indeed,

scrutiny.

In rejecting the objectivist model, tivism that reduces truth to whatever the

have not embraced a

I

community

rela-

decides, for the

community of truth includes a transcendent dimension of truthknowing and truth-telling that takes us beyond relativism and absolutism alike. Tbe clearest and most compelling naming of that dimension

is

found

in a couplet

and suppose, /But the Secret

a ring

“We

dance round

the middle

and knows.

by Robert PYost: sits in

in

Frost honors the transcendent secret of the subject at the center

of the community of truth, a secret that

solutism,

and by

which claims

relativism,

we know. The and

it

that

we can know

which claims

subject

is

knows

the

full reality of things,

that things have

itself

its

107 in

Community

no

reality save

what

we can ever know own secrets.

better than

forever evades our grasp by keeping

Knowing

equally obscured by ab-

it,

— this

If

were not the

come

long ago

case, the process of

Why

to a haft.

did

we

knowing would have

not settle for the pre-Socratic

view of the nature of the physical world or the medieval view or the view of early

modern

science?

Why

on the view we hold today? Because a subject that continually calls us

are

we

at the center of

deeper into

its

refuses to be reduced to our conclusions about

the the

pressing, even

now,

our attention

is

secret, a subject that

it.

The idea of a subject that calls to us is more than metaphor. In community of truth, the knower is not the only active agent subject itself participates in the dialectic of knowing. It is as Mary

Oliver says: like the

“The world

your imagination,

offers itself to

wild geese ...,/... announcing your place

/calls to

you

the family of

/ in

things.”'^

We say that knowing begins in our intrigue about some subject, but that intrigue are people

who

is

the result of the subject’s action

The

things of the world

call to us,

each of us to different things, as each

Once we have heard

that call

us out of ourselves and into

knowing

own

hear the music of

and we are drawn

drawn

hear the

to

them

to different friends.

and responded, the subject selfhood.

calls

At the deepest reaches,

requires us to imagine the inner standpoint of the subject

of that historical

moment,

or of that ear of corn. to really

its

is

who

us: geologists

who

hear rocks speak, historians are people

voices of the long dead, writers are people

words.

upon

of that literary character, of that rock,

As one research

scientist has said, “If

understand about a tumor, you’ve got

you want

to be a tumor.’’’^

We cannot know the subject well if we stand only in our own shoes. We must believe in the subject’s inner life and enter with empathy into in

it,

nor cultivate an inner

age the knower’s inner capacity to intuit,

The to

when we neither believe our own. When we deny or disparis the objectivist habit, we have no

an empathy unavailable

let

life

of

life,

as

to us

alone inhabit, the inwardness of the known.

sort of science

done by Barbara McClintock requires one

fathom the mystery of self in order

world, to become

who

—

to

as a colleague said

understands where the mysteries

fathom the mystery of the

of McClintock

lie’’

rather “than

mystifies.’’’^

108

The Courage to Teach

— “someone

someone who

As we gather around not only

we who

community

the subject in the

rects us, resisting

our

The

identity, refusing to be

subject

cor-

itself

framings with the strength of

false

it is

knowing, rejecting

correct each other’s attempts at

blurry observations and false interpretations.

of truth,

its

own

reduced to our self-certain ways of naming

its

otherness.

Eventually, as our insight deepens, the subject yields to a cer-

naming, and we conclude that we know

tain

But the transcendent

it.

subject always stands ready to take us by surprise, calling us into

namings and

observations, interpretations, and

new

into the mystery that

can never be fully named.

Openness nity

to

transcendence

is

what distinguishes the commu-

of truth from both absolutism and relativism. In

the process of truth-knowing and truth-telling

nor anarchic. Instead,

and

distance, of speaking

ing, that

the

it is

makes

is

this

community,

neither dictatorial

complex and eternal dance of intimacy

a

and

collaborators

listening, of

knowing and not know-

and co-conspirators

of the

knowers and

known.

The Grace of Great Things The community of truth mission because to,

the reality

we

it

is

an image that can carry the educational

embraces an

essential fact: the reality

long to know, extends far beyond

teracting with one another. In the

community

of

we belong

human beings intruth, we interact

nonhuman forms of being that are as important and powerful the human and sometimes even more so. This is a community held

with as

together not only by our personal powers of thought and feeling but also by the

power of “the grace

of great things.”''

That phrase comes from an

essay by Rilke.

When

alized that our conventional images of educational

our relationships with the great things that things that

call

the educational

us to

know,

to teach, to learn.

community becomes when

great things and relies entirely on our

own

in

I

it

read

it, I

Community

re-

community ignore us together

— the

saw how diminished excludes the grace of

c]uite limited graces.

109

Knowing

call

I

\\y

great things,

I

mean

seekers has always gathered jects,

not

th'e texts

the subjects around

—

which the

circle ot

not the disciplines that study these sub-

that talk about them, not the theories that explain

them, but the things themselves.

mean

I

the genes and ecosystems of biology, the symbols and

referents of philosophy

and theology, the archetypes

of betrayal

forgiveness and loving and loss that are the stuff of literature. the artifacts

and lineages of anthropology, the materials

I

and

mean

of engineer-

ing with their limits and potentials, the logic of systems in manage-

ment, the shapes and colors of music and

art, the novelties

and

patterns of history, the elusive idea of justice under law.

Great things such education.

It is

humans must have gathered around that we become who we are as knowers, teachers, and learnWhen we are at our best, it is because the grace of great things

derstand them fire

ers.

in

gathering around them and trying to un-

in the act of

—

nexus of community

as these are the vital

—

as the first

has evoked from us the virtues that give educational finest

community

its

form:

•

We

our communit y not because

invite diversity into

litically

correct but because diverse viewpoints are

it is

po-

demanded

by the manifold mysteries of great things. •

We embrace ambiguity cisive

but because

cepts to •

We

not because

we understand

embrace the vastness

welcome

the inadequacy of our con-

of great things.

is

we

are angry or

required to correct our biases

and prejudices about the nature

We

are confused or inde-

creative confiii't not because

hostile but because confiict

•

we

of great things.

we owe it to one anabout what we have seen would be

practice hones ty not only because

other but because to

lie

to betray the truth of great things. •

We experience humility but because humility

is

not because

we have fought and

the only lens through

lost

which great

—and once we have seen them, humility

things can be seenis

the only posture possible.

110

The Courage to Teach

men nnd wome-n rho)ii£rh cclucat ixui not beWe_become cause we have privileged information but because tyranny in any form can be overcome only by invoking the grace of

•

great things.

Of course, can easily

the educational

cite instances

when

community

the

is

not always at

community

of truth has

by the antithesis of virtues such as these. The Double Helix chronicles such a case: the discovery of

its

best!

We

been driven

is

a

hook

that

DNA by James Watson and

Francis Crick, a case in which ego and competition, pigheadedness

and greed, are shown

So

it

intrigues

viewed on the

way

to lie at the heart of the

me

that the

two principals them

the great thing called

James Watson

DNA,

“The molecule

on Francis and me. I

which has been

Then

spoke about the

since they first encountered

DNA.

said,

trying to prove that

enterprise.'^

in that story, inter-

fortieth anniversary of their discovery,

certain virtues have overtaken

reflected

academic

I

is

guess the rest of my

was almost equal a

so beautiful.

to

life

Its

glory was

has been spent

being associated with

hard task.”

Francis Crick

—

never seen him in a modest

of

whom Watson

mood”

—

replied,

once

said, “I

“We were

have

upstaged by

a molecule.”'*^

Crick’s humility

of

be uncharacteristic and strained, hut that

more compelling example of the power of the comtruth a community in which even our own agendas are

only makes

munity

may

it

a

—

sometimes upstaged by the grace of great things.

When

the great

when they lose their gravitational pull on our lives, out of the communal orbit into the black hole of posturing,

things disappear,

we

fall

narcissism,

and arrogance.

H ow do the great things disappear?

They dim, if they do not community that forms (or

when the image of deforms) education has more to do with disappear altogether,

intimacy, majority rule,

or marketing than with knowing, teaching, and learning. But there is

a

deeper threat to great things: they are killed off by an intellectual

arrogance that

tries to

reduce them to nothing more than the machi-

nations of our minds.

Ill

Knowing

in

Community

The

rhin^rs

disappear

With absolutism, we claim

relativism.

ot great things, so there

—

them

is

or with each other.

remains

is

in the

them

for

no need

The

rtf >>r>fl-| :ih«;o1ii|-i^pp

to

know

precisely the nature

continue

to

nnrL

dialogue with

in

experts possess the facts, and

to transmit those facts to those

who do

all

that

not know.

we claim that knowledge depends wholly on where one stands, so we cannot know anything with any certainty beyond our personal point of view. Once again, there is no need to continue With

in

relativism,

dialogue with great things or with each other: one truth for you,

another for me, and never mind the difference.

Of

course, the great things

only disappear from our view. all

the assaults of

ments

human

of life itself

we abandon

and

reality

We tTiat

a life

great things themselves survive

of the life of the

mind. The question

world

at will.^

Will

know

is,

of t heir

own

the indelives.^

power of great things o nly when

—an inwardness,

will

the world per-

we acknowledge

identity,

and

we

integrity

than objects, a quality of being and agency that

on us and our thoughts about them

relv

— they

of great things and their power to work on our

make them more

doe s not

in reality

arrogance, for they are the irreducible ele-

will experience the

them

grant

The

the arrogance that claims either to

fectly or to invent the

pendent

do not disappear

.

To understand this more fully, we need only look at what happens when we rob great things of their integrity. In the study of liter-

now common to teach classic texts through analytical lenses that show how riddled they are with the biases of their authors and \ their times. From this standpoint, it does not matter that Moby Dic}{ reaches deep into such great things in the human experience as hubris .^d destiny. It matters only that Melville was a patriarchal bigot. ature,

it is

David Denby has shown the hubris of this posture us, teachers

and students

itself: it

alike, feelings of superiority to the text,

thereby depriving us of the chance to learn anything from

how

superior

with a text or

we a

are.'“ It is

It is

it

except

impossible to be in a learning relationship

person that one regards as morally bankrupt.

reduce great things to such dismissive c ategories, their selfhood

gives

and deprive them of their voi^

not cheap mysticism to claim that

inner lives that will speak to our

own

—

if

we

112

The Courage to Teach

we

When

rob them of

.

all

let

great things have

them. Literary

texts

are merely the clearest

example

of such voices, voices that reach us

with astonishing clarity across huge gaps of space and time. tory of the to

it,

will

A

Third Reich.speaks

hnd echoes

a voice of evil that

my own

in

listen carefully

I

in the lifetime

of its

that even the rocks speak, telling tales across gaps of time far

we would not know we could hear.

than recorded histot^, stories

were the only speech

Annie Dillard

titled

The I

inner

life

of

any great thing

develop and deepen an inner

other being what

The

I

of

life

teaching ourselves to

wider vocal-

to TaH^, listen.^'

me until know in an-

incomprehensible to

my own.

cannot

I

in myself.

conclusion seems clear:

we know

is

will be

do not know

of the universe until

human

if

one of her books Teaching a Stone

hut the real issue, as Dillard knows,

in-

Every geologist knows

species.

its

and, through careful

a seashell

much about what happened

habitant and in the evolution of

ization

his-

soul.

marine biologist can pick up

listening, learn

if

The

we cannot know

the great things

ourselves to be great things. Abso-

lutism and relativism have ravaged not only the things of the world

but our sense of the

knowing

self as well.

We

are whiplashed be-

tween an arrogant overestimation of ourselves and estimation of ourselves, but the outcome distortion of the

humble

is

a servile

under-

always the same:

yet exalted reality of the

human

self,

a

a para-

doxical pearl of great price. I

ets.

once heard

this

Hasidic

In one pocket there

We need a coat with

is

dust,

tale:

“We

and

in the

two pockets

to

need

a coat

with two pock-

other pocket there

remind us who we

ing, teaching,

and learning under the grace

from teachers

who cjwn

such a coat and

are.”^^

is

Know-

of great things will

who wear

it

gold.

come

to class every day.

Knowing and the Sacred The images

of knowing central to this chapter

—

the

community

of

truth, the grace of great things, the transcendent subject, the “Secret”

that “sits in the

middle and knows”

—

these images emerge, for me,

my experience of reality as sacred and of the sacred as real. Othmay arrive at similar understandings from different starting

from ers

points.

But

I

believe that

knowing, teaching, and learning are

113

Knowing

in

Community

grounded rj^]iiires

cultivating a sense of the sacre^

am

1

renewing

in sacred soil^and that

aware

well

my

vocatjoiLiLS a teacher

.

that the marriage ot

knowing and

the sacred

has not always produced admirable offspring. But the history of ed-

show that spirituality is no worse than secularism in its propensity to sow had seed. know of no religious pathology, from

ucation will

I

fear to bigotry to rigid orthodoxy, that

is

not also found in secular

groves of academe. Tl^e healt h

form, comfortably ensconced

in the

of^durntion

abi lity to hold sacred

depends on our

o^at they c What do mean

get her

and secular

^ correct anTenr cFre^

s

I

jTjith^ r.

i

hy sacred?

a paradoxical concept

It is

to -

—

would expect when exploring the most profound truth of all.

as

one

On one

hand, the word points to an ineffable immensity beyond concept and definition, the sacred as

Holy

—

the mysterium tremendum, the

of reality.^^ r especL ”

On

t

renew

my

cannot depend on

teaching. But

he great things of the

Many

critics

I

The Idea of the

in

at the heart

qiii rollins, 1962), pp. 77—78. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of William ^t^dTord. 2.

Albert Q-Amns, Notebooks, 1935—1942

3.

Ibid., pp. 13-14.

4.

Nelle Morton, The Journey

Is

Home

(New

York: Marlowe, 1996),

p. 13.

(Boston: Beacon Press, 1985),

pp. 55-56.

(New

5.

Erik H. Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle

6.

Alfred North Whitehead, The Aims of Education

American Library/Mentor Books, 7.

8.

Ibid., p.

9.

Sue

10.

1.

12.

“The (iender Equation,”

1.

My

Valparaiso Univer-

Sciences, Sept. -Oct. 1992, p. 46.

A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Wor\ of McClintocf (New York: Freeman, 1983), p. 198.

Rosser, “Ciender Equation,”

p. 46.

Evelyn Fox Keller, Reflections on Gender and Science

Mitchell, “Ah,

Not

to

CHAPTER

Fla.:

III:

(New Haven, Conn.

p. 164.

Be Cut Off,”

Gidding,”

1909-1950 (Orlando,

2.

1

Evelyn Fox Keller,

14. T. S. Eliot, “Little

1.

at

1937), p.

to this source.

Yale University Press, 1985), 13.

New

1

V. Rosser,

Barbara 1

1

me

York:

1961), p. 13.

thanks to Mark Schwehn, dean of Christ College for alerting

(New

Grammar of Science (London: Dent,

Karl Pearson, The

sity,

York: Norton, 1964).

in

T

p. 191.

S. Eliot:

The Complete Poems and Plays,

Harcourt Brace, 1958),

p. 145.

THE HIDDEN WHOLENESS

Thomas P. McDonnell (ed.), “Hagia Sophia,” in.4 Thomas Merton Readei (New York: Doubleday, 1989), p. 506. These words are attributed to Bohr in many secondary sources (for example, Avery Dulles, The Reshaping of Catholicism |San F'rancisco:

21

Notes

HarperSanFrancisco, 1989|,

them

p. 37),

though

in his writings, •ij'heir authenticity

Bohr, in wn essay called lather

was the

“My

Father”:

is

(New 3.

is

also a

and IVo/f

York: Wiley, 1967),

Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

p.

as Seen by

Hans

maxims of my profound

profound truth,

where opposites are obviously absurd.”

Niels Bohr: His Life

(ed.),

favorite

sorts ol truths,

truths recognized by the fact that the opposite contrast to trivialities

to find

substantiated by his son,

“One of the

between the two

distinction

have been unable

1

S.

in

Rozental

His Friends and Colleagues

328.

Together

{New

York: HarperCollins, 1954),

p. 78. 4.

Robert N. Bellah and others. Habits of the Heart (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

5.

E. F.

Schumacher, Small

(New 6.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters

Mary

Oliver,

Monthly 2.

to a

Young

Poet, trans.

M. D. Herter (New

p. 35.

SiCoiiSl'AxweW, Measure of My Days,

CHAPTER 1.

Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered

York: HarperCollins, 1973), pp. 97—98.

York: Norton, 1993), 7.

Is

IV:

p. 25.

KNOWING

“Wild Geese,”

in

Dream

COMMUNITY

IN

Worl{

(New

York: Atlantic

Press, 1986), p. 14.

Page Smith, “To Communicate Truth,” Whole Earth Review,

Summer

1987, p. 55. 3.

Benjamin Barber, “The Civic Mission cation

and the

of the University,” in

Practice of Democratic Politics, ed.

Higher Edu-

Bernard Murchland

(Dayton, Ohio: Kettering Foundation, 1991). 4.

Ian Barbour, Religion in an Age of Science (San Francisco: HarperSan-

Francisco, 1990),

p. 107.

5.

Ibid.

6.

Gary Zukav, The Dancing

Wu

Li Masters

(New

York: Morrow, 1979),

p. 94. 7.

Barbour, Religion

8.

Ibid., p. 220.

9.

Ibid., p. 221.

10.

in

an Age of Science,

p. 107.

Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge ((Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960).

1

1.

Richard Gelw'ick, “Polanyi: Religion

and

An

Occasion of Thanks,” Cross Currents:

Intellectual Life, 1991, 41, 380-381. See also

218

Notes

Richard

Gclwick, The Way of Discovery: An Introduction Michael Polanyi

A

12. 13.

(New

to the

Thought of

York: Oxford University Press, 1977).

Feeling for the Organism,

Robert Frost, “The Secret

Sits,”

p.

200.

from The Poetry of Robert

Edward Connery Lathem (New York: Henry right 1942 by Robert Frost,

©

Frost, eel.

Holt, 1979),

p.

1970 by Lesley Frost FLdlantine,

Henry Holt & Co. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt & 14.

Oliver, Dreezm Woif, p. 14.

15.

Keller,

16.

James Shapiro, University of Chicago, quoted

T

362.

Feeling for the Organism,

p.

©

O^py1969 by

Co., Inc.

207. in

McClintock, 90, G^ne Research Pioneer Dies,”

“Dr. Barbara

New

Yorf Times, Sept.

4,

1992,p.C16. 1

7.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Rodin and Other Prose Pieces (London: Quartet Books, 1986),

p. 4.

18.

James D. Watson, The Double Helix (New York: Atheneum,

19.

Leon

Jaroff,

“Happy

Birthday,

Double Helix,” Time, Mar.

1968).

15, 1993,

pp. 58-59. 20.

David Denby, Great Boofs (New York: Simon & Schuster,

21.

Annie

Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk^

(New

1996).

York: HarperCollins,

1982). 22.

A

23.

Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy (London: Oxford University

24.

Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A (New York: Viking Penguin, 1964).

25.

Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, Nobel Prize Women

rabbi told

Carol, 1993) 26.

I

am

me

this

Hasidic

tale.

I

have not found

it

in print.

Press, 1952).

Report on the Banality of Evil

in Science

(New

York:

p. 170.

grateful to

Dawna Markova,

scholar and practitioner in the field of

bodily knowing, for information about the fight or Bight syndrome, “soft eyes,”

and the practice of aikido. For more on these

Bryner and

Dawna Markova, Aw Unused Intelligence

Conari Press, 27.

Andy

(Berkeley, Calif.:

1996).

Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses (New York: Vintage Books, 1991),

p. 309.

CHAPTER 1.

subjects, see

David

V.

Erdman

V:

(ed.),

TEACHING

IN

COMMUNITY

“Auguries of Innocence,”

Poetry and Prose of William Blafe

(New

p. 489.

219 Notes

in

The Complete

York: Doubleday Anchor, 1988),

2.

“Integrating C'omnuinity Service and Classroom Instruction Knhances

Learning: Results from an Lxperiment,” Educatiofial Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 1993, 3.

luclith

h, 410-419:

Axler Turner, “Mathematicians Debate ('alculus Reform and

Better Teaching,” Chronicle of Higher Education, )an. 31, 1990, 4.

“Does Objective Reality

Wide Web 5.

Universe a Phantasm.^” World

Exist, or Is the |

Erdman, Complete

Poetry and Prose of William Blaise,

VI:

LEARNING

p.

489.

COMMUNITY

IN

T H. White, The Once and Future King (New York: Ace Books, p. 183.

A 15.

Virtual Library: Sumeria http://wvvvv.livelinks.com/sumerial.

CHAPTER 1.

p.

1987),

Reprinted by permission of The Putnam Publishing Group.

©

Copyright

H. White; renewed

1939, 1940 by T.

©

1958 by T. H. White

Proprietor. 2.

Seven years after

this

book was published,

J.

wrote a considerably more

committee principles and

detailed description of clearness

See Chapter Seven in Parker

I

A Hidden

Palmer,

Wholeness: The Journey

Toward an Undivided Life (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, chapter

is

Scribner,

practices.

2004).

That

Palmer and Megan

reproduced

as

an appendix

The Courage

to

Teach Guide for Reflection and Renewal (San

to

Parker

J.

Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007). 3.

White, Once and Future King,

CHAPTER 1.

Marge

Piercy,

p. 183.

VII:

DIVIDED NO MORE

“The Low Road,”

in

The Moon

York: Knopf, 1981), pp. 44-45. Copyright

©

Is

Always Female (New

1980 by

Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf

Marge

Piercy.

Inc.

3.

(New York: Doubleday, 1990), p. Rosa Parks, Rosa Parfs: My Story (New York: Dial Books, 1992),

4.

Ibid., p.

5.

Jean C. Wyer, “Accounting Education:

2.

Myles Horton, The Long Haul

Expect

1

190. p.

1

16.

16.

It,”

(Tange Where You Might Least

Change, Jan. -Feb. 1993, pp. 15-17.

6.

Ibid., p. 15.

7.

Piercy,

8.

Personal communication from Brother Patrick Hart,

Moon

Is

Always Female, pp. 44—45.

personal secretary.

220

Notes

Thomas

Merton’s

9.

Rumi, “Say Yes Quickly,”

in

man Brooks

\'t.:

(Brattleboro,

Open

Secret: Versions

of Riwii, trans.

(>)lc-

Thresliolc) Books, 1984), p. 27.

AFTERWORD: THE NEW PROFESSIONAL 1.

William Stafford, “A Ritual

and Selected Poems 2.

“EasT: I

The

(St.

Each Other,”

to Reatl to

in

The Way

It Is:

New

Paul, Minn.: Ciray wolf Press, 1998), pp. 7^-7().

Nationa[ikson,

E.,

into,

power implications

141-142

dis-

Ciround rules for dialogue: “clearness committee” approach

of,

57—

to,

155- 161 confidentiality, 160; problems of conventional, 156-

N

1

112

E'xperts, 102,

48-

;

Quaker community,

156;

F Eear:

making them

appear, 111-112

49

Elvaluation: limitations of teacher, 147;

128-131;

157

acknowledging

(mlfWar, 54

teacher’s,

51; behaviors generated by,

H

46—47; createtl through education

Habits of the Heart (Bellah), 70, 71,

structures, 36—40; learning to

control our, 58—61; of losing iden-

81

“Hagia Sophia” (Merton), 63

38; personal types of, 51—58;

tity,

positive effects of, 39—40; under-

Hasidic

standing Student from Hell’s,

Havel,

45-46. See also Emotions

A Hidden

Freedom,

20-21,207

V.,

Wholeness: The Journey

Higher Education Research

(UCLA),

49-

G

Holographic

Gelwick,

Honesty,

1

Three

Institute

193

Highlander Folk School, 175

Galileo, 95

of

13

(Palmer), 21

Frost, R., 107

Gandhi, M.,

1

Toward an Undivided Life

1 1

French Lessons (Kaplan), 26

Gang

of two pockets,

tale

story,

logic,

125-126

10

1

Horton, M., 175

72—74, 154

Human

R., 101

consciousness, 21

Humanistic medical

Generativity: choice between stagnation and, 49; renewal through,

practice: defini-

tion of, 196—197; medical profes-

sionalism renewal to create,

50

“Going Public with

196-199

Spirituality in

Work and Higher Education”

Humility,

1

10

(2000 conference), 193

Grading: evaluation through, 141142;

power represented

1

The Idea of the Holy

by, 142

The Grammar of Science (Pearson),

losing, 38;

embracing, 109—1

meaning

of,

1

10;

13;

1

14

Identity: definition of, 13—14; fear of

55

Great things: community of truth

(Otto),

good teaching coming

from, 10—13;

as

defining

tion, 24;

McMaster

lost

through distor-

reclaiming our teaching,

24—26; shadow side of borrowed,

University’s collective inquiry

27; sources of, 14;

234

Index

through the

Knowledge: community

subjects that chose us, 26-30;

vocations which violate, 31—32

image

of truth

97-109, 103^^-109;

of,

Individualism, 70-71

objectivism approach

to,

52—58;

Inner landscape: education as trans-

objects of, 102, 103^g; as

power

formation exploring the, 192—193;

myth,

questions regarding, 205; value

to,

Integrity: definition of, 14;

Klan, 182

Kunzman,

good

approach

18—19, See also Learning

Ku Klux

of exploring teacher’s, 3—6

57; subjectivity

R., 195

teaching coming from, 10-13; sources of, 14; through the subjects that

tions

•

chose us, 2^6-30; voca-

which

violate,

L

^

Leach, D., 196, 197, 198, 199

31—32

Leadership: building learning com-

Intellectual path, 5

munity, 163-167; community

Intimacy: of personal" relationships,

diversity story on, 161—163;

93-94; of therapeutic model of

failure of coercive

community, 92-93

161—162; “teaching consultant”

approach

Intrator, S., 195

“Inward Journeys: Forms and

League

to,

to,

164

for Innovation in the

Community

Patterns of College Student

approach

College, 193

Learning: civic model of community

Spirituality” (Palmer), 193

applied

to,

94—95;

community of

truth reconstructing dynamics of,

J

Journal of College and Character,

1

93

138;

through

digital technology,

121; evaluation of, 141—142;

K

focusing on, 6—8; “Merlyn”

Das Kapital (Marx), 139

speaking to “Arthur” on value

Kaplan, A., 26—27

of, 166; as

Keller, E. R, 56

act

“Killing the

self,”

King Lear (Shakespeare), 86

“Know

Jr.,

Learning

18,

in

See also

community: ground

need for leadership

new

symbiosis, 100-

in,

161-167;

topics of conversation in the,

149—155; teaching in isolation

101

versus, 146— 149. See also

Knowing: McClintock’s approach

Community; Teachers; Teaching

to genetic, 56—57, 104, 105-106;

objectivist

1

rules for dialogue for, 155-161;

175

thyself,” 3

Knower-known

of teaching,

Knowledge

54-55

King, Martin Luther,

more important than

myth

of,

Letters to a

103^7^—109;

1

(Rilke), 89

“Lit Instructor” (Stafford), 35

physics and notion of, 98—100; the sacred and,

Young Poet

“Little” stories of individuals, 79, 83

13-1 16; subject

“The Low Road”

participation in, 107—109

235 Index

(Piercy), 169

M McClintock, 108,

B.,

Nazis, 182

New

56-57, 104, 105-106,

212-214; educating the, 204—208;

15

1

professional: definition of,

McMastcr University

emotional intelligence role

(Ontario), 128

in the,

Mandela, N., 207

208-212; institutional change for

Marginalized people, 45-44)

medical, 196—202;

Marketing model

of

ward

community,

to

why we

95-97 Marx, K.,

embracing

for-

212—214;

the,

need, 202—204. See

Iso

Education reform; Teachers

149, 140

No

Medical professionalism renewal:

ACXjME

moving

program

for,

Child Left Behind (NCLB), 194-195

196—199;

“Now

humanistic medical practice as

I

Become Myself’

(Sarton), 9

defined by, 196—197; organ donor case study

from

ACXjME

O

retreat,

Objectivism: described, 52; emotions

199-202,207

enemy

Medical school microcosm, 126—141

as

Melville, H., 112

against, 54—58;

Mentors: becoming one ourselves,

for,

26; reclaiming the

power

knowing

T.,

in

mode

a case

of knowing as

myth

of, 104/z^-109;

of

teacher-

121-122

medical

Objects of knowledge, 102, \05fig

school, 126-141; in social

research, 141-135; teaching to

Oliver, M., 91

fill

space using, 124-126

On-stage

reality show’, 28,

40

The Once and Future King (White),

W., 27, 28

Mirroring, 160

145, 166

Moby Dick, (Melville), 12 Mode of knowing: McClintock’s

Organ donor

1

approach

making

a case

centered classroom as fostering,

63

Microcosm approach:

Mills, C.

54—54;

making

subjective in, 52—53;

of our,

21-26 Merton,

of, 209;

case study, 199—202,

207 Otto, R., 114

to genetic science,

56—57; objectivism, 52-58; traditional,

P

51—52

Morton, N., 47

Movements. See

Muhammad

Paradoxes: description Social

movements

of, 69;

hokl-

ing the tension of, 86—90; instinc-

Ali, 120

tive capacity to

hold together,

66-67; learning limits and poten-

N NAACd^

tials

(National Association for

of self through, 69—76; peda-

gogical design and, 76—80; prac-

the Atlvancement of (Colored

ticing in the classroom, 80—86;

People), 175

price paid for splitting, 67—68; of

236

Index

“profound truths” of teaching,

ments driven by fighting against,

65—66; results of broken educa-

206-207

tional,

ments,

68—69; of social move1

Pretending, 90 Professional and Organizational

72; strength-

Development Network

weakness/gift-liahility, 74

High er

Parks, R., 174-176, 179, 207

in

E,ducation, 181

Pearson, K., 54—55

Professor X, 23-24

Pedagogical design, 76—80

Pseudo-movements,

Pedagogy: conventional, 18; design18— ing 19—classroom space, 76—80;

1

82—183

1

McMaster inc]uiry,

Q Quaker community, 156—157

University’s collective

128-131; placing

R

thing (great thing) in center of, 1

student-centered models

19;

19, 122;

Race concept: concept formation

of,

approach

subject-centered,

1

1

1

123; teacher-centered

models

also

understanding, 132-

Relation of Income to

Race table on,

118-119, 120, 121-122.

of,

The

135;

to

Re-membering,

Education; Education reform

“Pedagogy of the Distressed”

Reality:

21

academic transformation of

images

(Tompkins), 29

132^_g

of,

98—99;

communal

Personal Knowledge (Polanyi), 101

nature

of,

Personality types, 68

power

to create virtual, 121; cul-

Personal/public

tural

life

intersection:

97-102; computer’s

answers about, 20; educa-

“self-protective” disconnection

tion 14- reform driven by, 19—20;

and, 18-19; teaching done

either-or thinking fragmenting,

at the,

Physics:

communal metaphors used

in reality of,

knowing

transforming

reality in,

dynamics

stage

of, 28,

29

Rilke, R. M., 1,5,59, 88, 89, 109

99—100; notion of

in, 100;

images of

“A

98—99

Read

Ritual to

to

Each Other”

191 (Stafford), 115-

Piercy, M., 169

Roosevelt, E., 175

Plato, 94

Rumi,

Pogo

show and back-

64—65; on-stage

18

190

J.,

principle, 176

S

Polanyi, M., 101

Power: confusion 34; cultural

of authority with,

The

answers about, 20;

1

of “grace of great things,” 109-1

13;

1

of,

knowledge

141—142;

myth

as, 57; social

of

move-

14; as 1

paradoxical concept,

15;

rediscovering the,

116

grading representing

dynamics

sacred: cultivating a sense of,

Sarton, M., 9

Schumacher, E. E,

237 Index

87, 88

DNA,

Science: discovery of

186-190. See also Education

111;

reform

McCdintock’s approach to genetic,

microcosm, 141-145

56-57, 104, 105-106, 108, 115;

Social research

transforming images of

“Sociological imagination,” 27—19

knowing

in physics,

reality/

98—100

“Soft eyes” practice,

Scott, D., 194'

of,

16

Space: clearness committee approach

Scott-Maxwell, Self: identity

1

F.,

and

40,

90

to creating, 157-161; defined in

context of classroom, 76; develop-

integrity elements

ing skills to open, 146—148; para-

10—14; “killing the,” 54—55;

objectivism on the subjective,

dox applied

52-54; paradox to explore limits

of,

and potentials

of,

69—76;

remem-

to pedagogical design

76-80; resistance to opening

rather than filling the, 145-146;

bering our mentors to reclaim

teaching from the microcosm to

our, 21-26; “sociological imagina-

create truthful, 124—145; teaching

tion” applied to understanding,

to create

27-29; the teacher within invita-

92. See also

tion to

honor

8,

of truth in,

Community

of truth

Speech, 80, 85

true, 40—44; teach-

ing as done by the true,

community

14—17

Spiritual path, 5

Self-knowledge, 25—26

Stafford, W., 45, 191,201,214

“Self-protective” disconnection, 18-19

Stagnation-generativity choice, 49

Service-learning programs, 121

Stapp, H., 99

Sexism, 209

Student from Hell: experience of

Shapiro,

J.,

teaching, 44—45; fear of teacher in

115

Sheepdog metaphor, 152—155

story of, 48; lessons learned from,

Silence, 80, 85

50-51; understanding the fear

Small

Is

driving, 45-46

Beautiful (Schumacher), 87

Social

Darwinism, 98

Social

movements: communities of

Student-centered classroom: abuses

congruence’s language

of, 122;

debate between teacher-

centered and,

of, 179;

differences between pseudo-

1

18—1 19

Students: capacity for connectedness

movement and, 182—184; educa-

challenged by, 40—47; engaging

tion as transformation, 191—214;

them

in

four stages of, 172—174, 192;

Gang

of Three, 72—74, 154; help-

going public

ing

to build, 182—186;

“movement mentality” 172; origins of, 206;

divided

life

of, 171

—

overcoming

of truth,

1

18;

to find their voices, 47; of,

41-44; as

participant-observers in classes, 165 Subject: holographic logic of each,

of, 172;

rewards and accomplishments

them

negative stereotypes

through, 174—181;

paradoxical genius

community

125-126; participation in knowing/

of.

248

Index

community of truth, 107—109;

nity of truth reconstructing dy-

teachers with passion for the, 122

namics

Subject-centerecl classroom: han-

dling a contradiction in

a, 120;

pedagogical advantages

of,

123; teaching to

fill

space

in,

self,

Subjectivity:

1

to create

-18;

moments approach

19—

learning instead

to,

150-151;

of,

community applied

19-120

52—53

6-8; isolation

146-149; marketing model of

of,

to,

microcosm approach

academic bias against,

18-19; objectivism opj'»osition

Cf)mmu-

with drama, 139—140; focusing on

123-135; third of,

1

nity of truth in space, 92; critical

from the microcosm

thing characterization Subjective

1

of,

95-97;

to,

123-135;

paradoxes of “profound truths” of,

to,

52-58

65—66; the self that does the,

13-17; the teacher within

8,

call to,

30—34; therapeutic model of com-

T

•

munity applied

Teacher within voice, 30—34

w’e are, 1—3.

Teacher-centered classroom: debate

Learning

between student-centered and, 1

18—1 19; objectivism fostered

in

to, 93;

who

from

Classroom;

community

Teaching a Stone to

Tal/{ (Dillard),

113

in,

121—122; problems found in the,

“Teaching consultant” leadership, 164

120

Technique:

Teachers: acknowledging our fears

ing, 6;

as,

48-51; exploring the inner

of,

3—6; good teaching from iden-

tity

and

heart, 17—21;

K— 12,

NCLB

mode of

tion as transformation

Learning

in

inquiries about, 4—6;

nique,

6,

9-13,

New

Tompkins,

1

inti-

92—93

of,

J.,

29—30

Management, 95

Truth: implications/suggestions

approach

of,

asking deeper

102; McClintock’s

beyond tech-

genetic, 56—57, 104, 105—106,

18, 149; civic

model of community applied 94—95; colleagues as resources

108, to,

to,

integrity for, 10— 13;

1

15;

52—58; paradoxes of “pro-

approach

to,

Community

commu-

239 Index

to

objectivism approach

found,” 65-66; subjectivity

for,

148—149; as coming from identity

and

of education, 93;

in context

macy

Teaching: act of learning as more 18;

18

Therapeutic model of community:

Total Quality

1

1

teaching

121

Educa-

professional

important than,

reducing

Technologically enhanced learning,

movement;

community;

12;

Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 98

evaluating, 147; with “passion for the subject,” 122. See also

of good teach-

to, 12, 118, 149;

beyond, 9—13,

pressures on

194—195; normal

of du jour,

teaching

life

integrity of, 10-17; losing

in context

18—19. See also of truth

1

u

UCLA

Vietnam War, 54

V

Highec^Eclucation Research

Virtual reality, 121

Vocations: deep gladness sign of the

Institute, 193

“Uncovering the Heart

of

Higher

right, 31;

and

Education: Integrative Learning for

Compassionate Action

in

an

V’oices:

which

integrity,

violate identity

31-32

helping students to find

Interconnected World” (2007

their, 47;

conference), 193

to invite, 78-79, 83; of the teacher

Undivided ties of

lives:

building

communi-

space designed in order

within, 30—34

congruence through,

W

178—181; Pogo principle on choosing, 176; Rosa Parks’s desire

Watson,

for living, 174—178, 179; social

White, T. H., 145

movements driven by

Whitehead, A. N., 53

desire for,

1

1

“Wild Geese”

173-174

(Oliver), 91

Women’s movement,

V

209

\Alvet Revolution (Czechoslovakia),

20-21,206

240

Index

172, 188, 206,

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what you intend to

to

search for selfhood. “Before you

do with

do with you. Before you

have decided

to live

up

it,” tell

to, let

tell

he writes, “listen for what

your

your

life

what

life tell

truths

your it

life

intends

and values you

you what truths you em-

body, what values you represent.” Sharing stories of frailty and strength, of darkness

and

light.

Palmer

will

show you

not a goal to he achieved hut a gift to he received.

that vocation

is

I

Its

^

*«.

**

;Ki >

‘

"

»