Post 481: The Courage To Teach Chapter 2 Week 2

 

 

Post 481: The Courage To Teach by Parker J. Palmer--Chapter 2

In Chapter 2, Palmer talks about how Western culture has a lot of fear built into it. In education, the students fear the authority of the teacher.  The teacher fears being laughed at by the students. The teacher fear colleagues because the teacher competes with colleagues for promotions and raises. The student fears losing the teacher's respect by asking too many questions and looking stupid. The teacher fears losing student approval at the end of class rating. So, when you combine the fears of the teacher, and the fears of the student together, Palmer says, then, "These fears paralyze education" and no learning takes place.

Palmer advises teachers to form a community with students, get students to trust the teacher, get students to feel comfortable asking teachers questions, create a welcoming approachable atmosphere in which students lose their fear of looking stupid in front of the teacher, and the teacher shows the students they are human, makes mistakes, has a welcoming caring nurturing teaching persona which cause students to trust and bond with the teacher. Once the students bond and trust the teacher, the two form a community of learning where students depend on each other for learning, and the teacher asks as a guide to keep the students on guide.

Once the fear is dissipated can real learning take place. The top down traditional learning structure of a teacher centered classroom where the teacher dominates the classroom and views the students as empty vessels to be filled with information only perpetuates student fears of the teacher and students continue to see the teacher as an authority figure who gives them good or bad grades depending on how much students can memorize material for the test.

The teacher learns to trust the students, and the students learn to trust the teacher, and both create their own culture, their own community of learning. I help my students overcome their fear of me by answering every student in the welcome forum, giving students a 'How are you doing email?', giving students a live Welcome to the class Zoom Session where I make it apparent that I am easy to approach for any questions or concerns students may have. It is essential to create this welcoming environment in the first two weeks of class to get students situated in your class, and to motivate students to learn and succeed in class. The focus of Chapter 2 is reducing fear for education/learning to happen.