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You
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Recommended Reading
The Courage to Teach
by Parker Palmer
San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998
ISBN: 0-7879-1058-9
Dr. Parker Palmer, senior associate of the American Institute for Higher Education and senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute, explains that "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."
The book is based on the premise that "good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teachers." Palmer examines some of the reasons for teacher isolation and fragmented systems, and he offers a guide to creating communities of learning and new feelings of wholeness. He suggests that only when we know ourselves can we help our students to develop into whole people who will become lifelong learners.
Palmer concludes that "when we are unfaithful to the inward teacher and to the community of truth, we do lamentable damage to ourselves, to our students, and to the great things of the world that our knowledge holds in trust. . but if you are here faithfully with us, you are bringing abundant blessing. It is a blessing known to generations of students whose lives have been transformed by people who had the courage to teach."
This book has already become a runaway bestseller in education, and is the basis for numerous discussion and study groups. A handbook and video will soon be available for those who wish to apply Parker's principles to their lives and the lives of their students.
Copyright © October 1998 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.
http://www.newhorizons.org
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