The Courage to Teach
“I will strive to see my students lives more clearly than they themselves see them and will have a desire to help them see themselves more clearly.”
The Courage to Teach: Inspiration for Teachers
The Courage to Teach includes the courage to know ourselves better, because "We teach who we are." In his best-selling book, The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer helps teachers reconnect with themselves and rediscover their passion for one of the most difficult and important human endeavors.
These messages are built on the premise that the best teaching occurs when teachers are in unity with their inner selves, their subject and their students.
Parker's probes will challenge you to know yourself better and invite you to think carefully about your teaching practices. They are designed to promote reflection and will lead you to a better understanding of your identity as teacher. Most important, these messages are a daily reminder that as teachers you are part of a remarkable community of people who-because they give of themselves to young people-can identify with your worst as well as best days.
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About the Community Leader
Meet Parker J. Palmer
Parker J. Palmer is a highly respected writer, teacher and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. His work speaks deeply to people in many walks of life, including public schools, college and universities, religious institutions, corporations, foundations, and grass-roots organizations.
Dr. Palmer served for fifteen years as Senior Associate of the American Association of Higher Education. He now serves as Senior Advisor to the Fetzer Institute. He founded the Center for Courage & Renewal, which oversees the "Courage to Teach" program for K-12 educators across the country and parallel programs for people in other professions, including medicine, law, ministry and philanthropy. (See www.CourageRenewal.org)
He has published a dozen poems, more than one hundred essays and seven books, including several best-selling and award-winning titles: A Hidden Wholeness, Let Your Life Speak, The Courage to Teach, The Active Life, To Know as We Are Known, The Company of Strangers, and The Promise of Paradox.
Dr. Palmer's work has been recognized with ten honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, an Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press, and major grants from the Danforth Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and the Fetzer Institute.
In 1993, Dr. Palmer won the national award of the Council of Independent Colleges for Outstanding Contributions to Higher Education.
In 1998, The Leadership Project, a national survey of 10,000 administrators and faculty, named Dr. Palmer as one of the thirty "most influential senior leaders" in higher education and one of the ten key "agenda-setters" of the past decade: "He has inspired a generation of teachers and reformers with evocative visions of community, knowing, and spiritual wholeness."
In 2001, Carleton College gave Dr. Palmer the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.
In 2002, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education created the "Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award", given annually to the directors of ten medical residency programs that exemplify patient-centered professionalism in medical education.
In 2003, the American College Personnel Association named Dr. Palmer a "Diamond Honoree" for outstanding contributions to the field of student affairs.
In 2005, Jossey-Bass published Living the Questions: Essays Inspired by the Work and Life of Parker J. Palmer, written by notable practitioners in a variety of fields including medicine, law, philanthropy, politics, economic development, K-12 and higher education.
Parker J. Palmer received the Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley. A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), he lives with his wife, Sharon Palmer, in Madison, Wisconsin.
