Wednesday, January 28, 2009

The Courage to Teach

The Courage to Teach is probably the most significant book about teaching I've ever read. Parker Palmer first wrote this 240 page gem ten years ago and received such favorable acclaim from teachers that he, along with colleagues formed the Center for Courage and Renewal which has reinvigorated thousands of teachers all over the US.
The current edition (just came out in 2007) also includes a CD featuring Palmer and others discussing both his book, its impact, and the work of the Center.
What first attracted me to the book was the back of the jacket. I'd like to share it with you:

"I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy...But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused - and I am so powerless to do anything about it - that my claim to be a teacher seems a transparent sham....If you are a teacher who never has bad days, or who has them but does not care, this book is not for you. This book is for teachers who have good days and bad, and whose bad days bring the suffering that comes only from something one loves, It is for teachers who refuse to harden their hearts because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life."

Palmer delivers what he promises. I think he is a believer (see his other titles on Amazon) and the principles he discusses are certainly biblical. One of the things I most appreciate is that Palmer doesn't speak from an ivory tower. He confesses his own perplexities and failures as an educator. Although Palmer's experience is largely with post-secondary social-science students, much of the work he has engaged in over the years has been with elementary and secondary teachers. In many ways, as he himself states, they have been his mentors.

One of the sections of the book that has meant the most to me is his discussion of paradox. As the book's subtitle indicates, the focus of the entire work is not about technique (there are a thousand and one of those out there) but on the "inner landscape of a teacher's life." Part of the paradox, Palmer says, is about the gifts we possess that we bring to our teaching profession that makes us what we are. The other aspect of the paradox is what happens when I use my gift and it backfires. Here's a passage that scratched where I itched:

....I learn that my gift as a teacher is the ability to dance wth my students, to co-create with them a contaext in which all of us can teach and learn, and that this gift works as long as I stay open and trusting and hopeful about who my students are.
But when my students refuse to dance with me, my strength turns to weakness. I get angry, although my relational nature often keeps me from expressing my anger in clean and open ways. I become sinently resentful and start steppping on the toes of my unwilling dance partners, occasionally kicking their shins. I become closed and untrusting and hopeless far more quickly than need be, simply because they have rejected my gift.....
I need to learn that the pain I sometimes experience in teaching is as much a sign that my selfhood is alive and well as the joy I feel when the dance is in full swing. If I learn that simple but profound truth, I might stay closer to my gift and farther from repressed anger and be more likely to teach in ways that will work for both me and my students.
The root cause of this low point in my teaching was not a failure of technique, though there are techniques that could help me in such moments. The root cause was a sense of self-negation, or even self-annihilation, that came when my students were unwilling to help me fulfill my nature.
It is embarrassing to put it that baldly. I know, intellectually, how naive it is to assume that other people, especially students, are here to help me fulfill myself-naive at best and arrogant at worst. But that assumption is what did me in as that class unraveled and my own growth as a teacher requires that I face such awkward facts.
To become a better teacher, I must nurture a sense of self that both does and does not depend on the responses of others - and that is a true paradox.


Okay, it took months for me to really understand what this meant. But I think I'm beginning to grasp the concept of paradox. I like to do creative things and fun things and have small group discussions instead of lecturing all the time - things I know won't bore the students. That's because I really care about the students and have a passion for my subject as all of you out there do. That is my gift (I hope!). That is also one side of the paradox. I care, I create, teaching and learning matters. Now the other side of the paradox is what happens to me if the students don't cooperate. For me, for example, if I am trying to do something creative and it isn't appreciated I grow resentful. I get hurt and say to myself "why knock myself out for this crowd?" I should just do the minimum and then sling the test their direction. Then I'll just relax and take it easy." But the other side of the paradox is that the reason I get hurt in the first place is because of my gift - because I care. If I decide to just do the bare minimum I am also negating my gift. If I decide "I won't let this bother me" I am also negating my gift and becoming someone completely different than what God created me to be. So, instead of denying that I am hurt or upset and protecting myself against further hurt by not caring anymore, I need to face the paradox head on. Face it, and find creative ways to deal with my hurt without denying either who God created me to be or the needs of my students.

This is a magnificent book - the kind of volume that you can come back to again and again for inspiration and hope and doesn't offer unrealistic quick fixes but principles for the rest of your life.

Here it a link for the book at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Courage-Teach-Exploring-Landscape-Teachers/dp/0787996866/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215438075&sr=8-3

Here's another link for the Center for Courage and Renewal:

http://www.couragerenewal.org/

4 comments:

  1. I love your summary of your paradox ... I included it on my blog. I think it applies beyond just schoolteachers, insofar as we all insulate ourselves from disappointment by becoming callous, thus losing the joy as well. Jesus had every "right" to hate Jerusalem, yet he wept openly for her people. Thanks for this reminder.

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  2. Thanks, Jailer. It was really a blow to my pride to even admit the paradox. But after I read it in Palmer I began to realize that there are certainly others who share my pain and frustration.

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  3. I have a HS teacher friend who is struggling with exactly what you described. I shared this with her and hope it provides some comfort that others experience some of the same thoughts and "paradox's". I think you captured what many teachers feel Chief. Well done. David

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  4. Thanks Phantom4! Glad I could help. My prayer is that others will log on and perhaps even contribute to the fellowship - I'd really like to see some koinonia result from our little blog.

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