Reflections on the Writings of Parker J. Palmer

My task is “to find a common focus for my spirit-seeking heart and my knowledge-seeking mind.” Parker J. Palmer, TO KNOW AS WE ARE KNOWN. EDUCATION AS A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY, xxiv (San Francisco: Harper, 1993). In a life and culture of despair and disconnection, I need hope, optimism, and commitment that are possible in a community to which I willingly belong. Any path walked with integrity can take me to a place that welcomes diversity and conflict, tolerates ambiguity, and provides opportunities to grow. See id., at xi. That is why I teach.

In education, the dominant mode of knowing is rooted in fear and in our Western tendency to think in dichotomies that create disconnections between teachers, subjects, and students. Parker J. Palmer, THE COURAGE TO TEACH. EXPLORING THE INNER LANDSCAPE OF A TEACHER’S LIFE, 50-60. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998). By contrast, real knowing is relational, animated by the desire to come into deeper community with what and with whom we engage. See id., at 54. Truths are found not by sorting reality into either-ors, but by embracing its continuities. See id., at 63.

To create communities of truths is our purpose as teachers. See id., at 90. The hallmark of a community of truths is its web of communal relationships. See id., at 95. At the center of this community are subjects—I and thee—engaged in conversations about things that matter, conducted with passion and discipline. See id., at 104. Our community is held together, not just by us, but by a “third thing” so real and vivid that it makes us accountable for what we say and do. See id., at 107. In our community, we fashion a space so that the third thing has an independent voice, speaks for itself, and is heard and understood by us and by others.

We infuse this space with openness, structure, and compassion. See generally, Palmer, TO KNOW AS WE ARE KNOWN, op cit., at 71-75. We open this space by clearing it of clutter, meaningless words, and daily distractions. We structure the space to prevent confusion and chaos. With compassion, in this space we receive each other, our struggles, and our newborn ideas with kindness and care.

Similarly, in our classrooms we create a learning space that has six fundamental characteristics. See generally, Palmer, THE COURAGE TO TEACH, op cit., at 73-77.

  • A learning space is bounded and open. A learning space has an intentional focus which is nevertheless open to the many paths down which discovery may take us to a destination we did not foresee.
  • A learning space is safe and challenging. A learning space is inviting, free, and trustworthy, but also challenges us to confront risks and look at ourselves and at life more deeply.
  • A learning space invites individual and group voices. A learning space enables individuals to speak truthfully and express their thoughts and feelings, and enables the group to voice their concerns and desires.
  • A learning space honors “little stories” and “big stories.” A learning space contains people’s stories about everyday life and connects them with larger stories to help us understand life.
  • A learning space supports individual solitude and community resources. People may need time alone to reflect upon and absorb what they learn. They also may need to be with and rely upon others.
  • A learning space welcomes silence and speech. Silence enables us to reflect on things emerging within ourselves and from others. Then we may need to put things into words to gain a greater understanding and make concrete for others what we know.

As teachers, the question we most frequently are asked is the “where” question: “Where do you teach?” The next most frequent question is the “what” question: “What subjects do you teach?” If the conversation goes a bit deeper, we are asked the “how” question: “How do you teach that?” Occasionally, if the conversation goes deeper still, we are asked the “why” question: “Why do you teach?” Seldom, if ever, are we asked the “who” question: “Who is the self that teaches?” In fact, we may not ask that question of ourselves. See id., at 4.

For Palmer, the human heart is the source of good teaching. Id., at 3. Good teaching, he says, comes from our identity and integrity. Parker J. Palmer, (2000) LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK: LISTENING FOR THE VOICE OF VOCATION, 11 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000).

Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one’s inwardness, for better or worse. As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together….When I do not know myself, I cannot know who my students are. I will see them through a glass darkly, in the shadows of my unexamined life—and when I cannot see them clearly, I cannot teach them well. When I do not know myself, I cannot know my subject—not at the deepest levels of embodied, personal meaning. I will know it only abstractly, from a distance, a congeries of concepts as far removed from the world as I am from personal truth. [Palmer, THE COURAGE TO TEACH, op cit., at 2.]

Many of us are teachers because we encountered a mentor, someone (usually a teacher) who enabled us to see that teaching was our gift and our calling. According to Palmer, this call to teach “comes from the voice of the teacher within.” Id., at 29. We also have been called to our particular field of study because it shed light on our identity as well as enabled us to better understand the world. We did not find the subject we teach; that subject found us. Id., at 25.

Through his writings, Palmer helps us honor the spiritual dimensions of our calling as teachers and the communities we create with our students in our classrooms.


2 Responses to “Reflections on the Writings of Parker J. Palmer”

  1. Tina on 17 Sep 2013 at 9:54 pm

    I have so loved your reflections. I particularly loved the Esther Goff reflection. It brought back many memories of my father who passed away 5 years ago. My father was a physician but the teacher that he remembered and loved the very most was one of his English teachers. I remember many Sundays when he would open up Shakespeare and read and reread the text, many times aloud. He knew poem after poem all because of this great women. Before she died, he located her and let her know of his gratitude for the gift he had been given. I get to relive the feelings that I felt for my father’s teacher through you. Thanks!

    I also have been touched by this new reflection. I believe that if we have had a great teacher, then we all have felt this even though we may not have analyzed the parameters of the “learning space.” I also feel that great teachers really do project the condition of their very souls to their students for real and lasting learning to take place. My husband is a teacher. He can never remember not wanting to be one. As a young boy he watched his mother teach and wanted to do the same. She was his mentor but he has the gift of teaching, the love of teaching and most of all has love and concern for the students.

    I am sure that you have been the mentor to many, many young people. Your love is felt in everything that you write.

  2. marcy on 18 Sep 2013 at 10:10 pm

    To Tina, from Jim:
    “You have been blessed to see the love of learning instilled in your father by a gifted teacher and to see your husband’s passion for teaching that touches the lives of countless students.” Thanks for your comment.

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