Table of Contents

Foreword to the Tenth Anniversary Edition ix

Gratitudes xix

Introduction: Teaching from Within 1

I The Heart of a Teacher: Identity and Integrity in Teaching 9

II A Culture of Fear: Education and the Disconnected Life 35

III The Hidden Wholeness: Paradox in Teaching and Learning 63

IV Knowing in Community: Joined by the Grace of Great Things 91

V Teaching in Community: A Subject-Centered Education 117

VI Learning in Community: The Conversation of Colleagues 145

VII Divided No More: Teaching from a Heart of Hope 169

Afterword: The New Professional: Education for Transformation 191

Notes 215

The Author 225

The Center for Courage & Renewal 227

About the CD 229

Index 231

About the Author

Parker J. Palmer is a highly respected writer, lecturer, teacher, and activist. His work speaks deeply to people in many walks of life, including education, medicine, religion, law, philanthropy, the public sector, and social change. Author of seven books, including the bestsellers Let Your Life Speak and A Hidden Wholeness, his writing has been recognized with ten honorary doctorates and a number of national awards. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

Reviews

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 Britain

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 life‘a 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.)