As a spiritually inspirational book for teachers, The Courage to Teach is one of the best. The premise is concise and unarguable: good teaching comes from the identity and the integrity of the teacher. Teachers are encouraged to turn their inquiring minds inward--developing a deeper understanding of what it means to fulfill the spiritual calling of teaching. Good teachers share one trait, says author Parker Palmer, they are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students, so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts--the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self. --Gail Hudson


From Library Journal
Palmer (To Know as We Are Known, HarperCollins, 1993) is a senior adviser at the Fetzer Institute and has taught at Beloit College and Georgetown University. He discusses the inner life of the dedicated teacher and how that life shapes teaching and learning. According to Palmer, "Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse." In this book, he explores the inner landscape of the teaching self, and to understand that landscape more fully, he discusses three important paths that must be taken?intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Recommended for all teachers, this book would be a valuable addition to professional and teacher education collections.?Barbara S. Meagher, Central Connecticut State Univ., New BritainCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"This is the best education book I've read in a long time. Palmer provides a powerful argument for the need to move from our over-reliance on technique toward a learning environment that both honors and truly develops the deepest human capacities in children and teachers. It's about time we remember that it's the person within the teacher that matters most in education, and Palmer makes the case eloquently." (Teacher Magazine)

"If teaching is just a chore, and you are content to just 'do chores,' this book is not for you. You will be challenged to go beyond the minimum and pursue excellence. But rather than approaching teaching as something we just tolerate, Parker Palmer holds out the promise of it being something we can celebrate." (Academy of Management Review)

"Reading this book will enrich the life of any teacher who loves teaching." (Pro Rege)

"Parker Palmer is a teacher's teacher, and it is when he writes as a teacher that this book is a remarkably inspiring, almost religious companion for anyone who has taught or might be thinking of about teaching as a vocational journey for life.... This book can change your life if you are a teacher." (Religious Education)

"Through a series of vignettes, Palmer encourages reflection, and strives to bolster readers' initiative and confidence. The Courage to Teach is an awakening, and a gentle, directive touch that reaches out to teachers of all levels and ages." (Childhood Education)

"To go on this journey with Parker Palmer into the uncharted territory of 'the self' in teaching is not only to experience the joy of viewing teaching from a thrilling new perspective. It is also to be in the presence of a great teacher who, by sharing himself so openly and honestly, engages us in the very kind of teaching he so eloquently describes." (Russell Edgerton, director of educational programs, Pew Charitable Trusts, and past president, American Association for Higher Education)

"A profoundly moving, utterly passionate, and inspired articulation of the call to, and the pain and joy of, teaching. It is must reading for any and every teacher, at any level." (Jon Kabat-Zinn, author, Wherever You Go, There You Are, and coauthor, Everyday Blessings)

"This book is good news—not just for classroom teachers and educators, but for all of us who are committed to the healing of our world." (Joanna Macy, author, World As Lover, World As Self)

"Parker Palmer has taught me more about learning and teaching than anyone else. The Courage to Teach is for all of us—leaders, public officials, counselors, as well as teachers. It compassionately and insistently asks us to recognize that our capacity to do good work springs from our recognition of who we are." (Margaret J. Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science, and coauthor, A Simpler Way)

"This is a profoundly satisfying feast of a book—written with a rare mix of elegance and rigor, passion and precision—a gift to all who love teaching and learning." (Diana Chapman Walsh, president, Wellesley College)

"Evokes the heart of what teachers really do, and does so in a vivid, compelling, and soulful way." (Robert Coles, University Health Services, Harvard University)


Jon Kabat-Zinn, author, Wherever You Go, There You Are, and coauthor, Everyday Blessings
"A profoundly moving, utterly passionate, and inspired articulation of the call to, and the pain and joy of, teaching. It is must reading for any and every teacher, at any level."


Joanna Macy, author, World As Lover, World As Self
"This book is good news-not just for classroom teachers and educators, but for all of us who are committed to the healing of our world."


Robert Coles, University Health Services, Harvard University
"Evokes the heart of what teachers really do, and does so in a vivid, compelling, and soulful way."


Book Description
"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."
- Parker J. Palmer [from the Introduction] Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do -- give heart to our students? In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students -- and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.


From the Inside Flap
"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."--Parker J. Palmer [from the Introduction]

Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do--give heart to our students?

In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students--and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.

"This book builds on a simple premise: good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher."Good teaching comes in myriad forms, but good teachers share one trait: they are truly present in the classroom, deeply engaged with their students and their subject. They possess "a capacity for connectedness" and "are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students, so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts--the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self."Palmer guides us through the inner work of teaching in order to help us create communities of learning--and he calls educational institutions to support teachers in this work: "How can schools educate students if they fail to support the teacher's inner life--To educate is to guide students on an inner journey toward more truthful ways of seeing and being in the world. How can schools perform their mission without encouraging


From the Back Cover
A moving, profound, and exhilarating journey toward discovering the true spirit of teaching


About the Author
PARKER J. PALMER is a highly respected writer who works indepAndently on issues in education, community, spirituality, and social change; he offers lectures, workshops, and retreats across the country. In 1998, The Leadership Project, a survey of 11,000 educators, named Dr. Palmer as one of the thirty most influential senior leaders in higher education and one of ten key 'agAnda-setters' of the past decade: He has inspired a generation of teachers and reformers with evocative visions of community, knowing, and spiritual wholeness. Dr. Palmer is senior associate of the American Association for Higher Education and senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute, for whom he designed the Teacher Formation Program for K-12 teachers. Author of such widely-praised books as The Company of Strangers, The Active Life, and To Know As We Are Known, he holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their subject. But the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what good teachers always do - give heart to our students? In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer takes teachers on an inner journey toward reconnecting with their vocation and their students - and recovering their passion for one of the most difficult and important of human endeavors.

SYNOPSIS

A look at the inner life of the dedicated teacher: what it means to teach, what it takes to truly connect with students, and the importance of self-realization.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Spiritual nurturing has been at the heart of both of Palmer's previous books, The Active Life and To Know as We Are Known. A teacher, speaker and writer who contends that teaching is an integral part of all his work, Palmer now explores the spirituality of teaching. He contends that the task of teaching is filled with joy and fear, success and failure, but, he says, "good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher." For Palmer, such integrity comes from the inner self of the teacher, and he argues that the courage to teach involves probing the heart to find the "heart's longing to be connected with the largeness of lifea longing that animates love and work." Palmer begins by arguing that many current teaching strategies, like the traditional lecture-hall setting where the teacher dispassionately dispenses knowledge, promote disconnectedness among students and teachers. He goes on to contend that teaching from a spiritually introspective position promotes a community of learning in which the teachers and students are connected in the learning process. Palmer lays bare his own struggles in engaging prose, and his book is sure to inspire the educational community to think in new ways about its tasks. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Palmer (To Know as We Are Known, HarperCollins, 1993) is a senior adviser at the Fetzer Institute and has taught at Beloit College and Georgetown University. He discusses the inner life of the dedicated teacher and how that life shapes teaching and learning. According to Palmer, "Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse." In this book, he explores the inner landscape of the teaching self, and to understand that landscape more fully, he discusses three important paths that must be takenintellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Recommended for all teachers, this book would be a valuable addition to professional and teacher education collections.Barbara S. Meagher, Central Connecticut State Univ., New Britain

Library Journal

Palmer (To Know as We Are Known, HarperCollins, 1993) is a senior adviser at the Fetzer Institute and has taught at Beloit College and Georgetown University. He discusses the inner life of the dedicated teacher and how that life shapes teaching and learning. According to Palmer, "Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse." In this book, he explores the inner landscape of the teaching self, and to understand that landscape more fully, he discusses three important paths that must be takenintellectual, emotional, and spiritual. Recommended for all teachers, this book would be a valuable addition to professional and teacher education collections.Barbara S. Meagher, Central Connecticut State Univ., New Britain

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING