Post 480: The Courage To Teach by Parker J. Palmer: Chapter 1
At Fortis College where I work, my boss is hosting a book club where we are reading, The Courage To Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life by Parker J. Palmer. We will be reading all 7 chapters in 7 weeks for Professional Development credit. Each week, we will read one chapter.
During Week 1, Palmer discusses that to be a good teacher, you have to learn to explore your inner self. You have to know who you are to teach a good class. Palmer says good teaching is not about technique, but knowing yourself, having the courage to be vulnerable with your students, so your students can see you as a human being and be able to connect and relate to you.
The boss summarized Chapter 1 this way and took out this quote for us to
comment on " Strong teaching cannot be reduced to technique. It comes
from the
identity, authenticity, and integrity of the teacher. All good teachers
have one common trait; a strong sense of personal identity infuses
their work." How do you let your identity infuse your teaching?
Many students in my Professional Development class wrote about their teaching experiences. They said that the most important component to teaching is caring, authenticity, honesty, and vulnerability. You have to have the courage to expose yourself to your students as being honest, vulnerable and authentic rather than hide behind the Sage on the Stage facade.
One teacher wrote about how her father worked as a coach for 40 years and acted as a role model for her to become a caring teacher, and how she wants to live up to her father's career where students loved him and showed up for his funeral.
For me, the most important aspect of teaching is to care about your students. I know that my identity is tied with my teaching which is what Palmer says that to know yourself, to know your inner life, is to know yourself as a teacher.
I used an example from when I worked at Koreatown. At Korea town, I had to teach the Sage on the Stage method because that was the method used in Korean schools. I taught at a Korean after school where Korean students go to regular public American school during the day, then from 3PM to 9PM, they take extra school to get ahead. The immigrant Korean parents are very strict and want their children to have the same top down 9AM to 9PM education where the teacher is the only speaker and the students are the passive listeners as they did when they were young. I was required to teach in the Sage on the Stage manner, and I found out quickly that I disliked being the only one talking for hours at a time. I realized that I am a student centered project oriented teacher Guide by the Side more than I am a Sage on the Stage.
As I was reading the end of Chapter 1, the concepts of internal motivation and external motivation came to mind. Palmer says that when we teach, it comes from an inner place, an internal motivation to want your students to succeed, and to want all your students to succeed, and that teaching is not about external motivation like grades, or rote memory, but not understand the teacher's inner self and to be able to animate this internal motivation of loving writing or whatever you teach to students. I feel every time a student fails, I fail as a teacher.
Every time I see a low grade from a student, I feel internally I failed as a teacher. For me, my internal motivation and what makes me happy is to see all students succeed, be happy, and develop a lifelong love for writing. When I see all my students with A's, I don't see this as grade inflation, I see this as my success as a teacher to teach students to love writing and be a life long learner and for my students to become confident in their ability to communicate. My internal happiness is tied with the happiness and success of my students in the class.
For me, caring about my students is the most important aspect of teaching. I believe it when Palmer says that teaching is not about technique, but about the heart and about getting to know your inner life. I just know I am not a pure Sage on the Stage teacher because it would be boring if I did all the talking all of the time. The joy of teaching personally is for me to interact with students and engage students into the teaching experience and have students be able to apply what they learn in the classroom to their daily work life or home life.
Teaching is not about external motivation like grades, rote memory, or technique, but from what comes from the heart. I believe the best teachers teach from the heart and truly cares for their students. When students see that you teach from an inner place, they then know you care about them, and believe in their ability to shoot for the moon. To give my students this confidence to shoot for the moon in writing I hope will become my biggest legacy for my students.
It is all about connecting with your inner self, so you can connect with your students and teach your students from the heart, that to me is the main theme of the first chapter of this book.
What do you think kind reader is the theme of the first chapter of this book?
The next chapter for next week deals with fear. Chapter 2: A Culture of Fear: The Disconnect and Education. Stay tuned for next week's topic!
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