Fear and the Disconnected Life

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

Greetings, Students!
Today’s reading assignment on FEAR generated an interesting “conversation” in your blogs. As Steven remarked in closing his blog entry, “Good reflection material as we look toward a new school year….” In class, let’s discuss the implications of this chapter for each of you as you enter a new school year next month.

During class this afternoon, I would like to ask you to share your favorite quote from this chapter and explain what it means to you as an educator. Along these lines, many meaningful quotes from Palmer were evident in your blogs. I’ve highlighted a few (below) with accompanying questions for further discussion.

Thank you to each of you for your openness in sharing your experiences in your blogs (as well as in class). This has definitely enriched our ability to create a spiritual community among us, which makes saying “goodbye” to Bipin and Vinod all the harder this afternoon. Vinod and Bipin, you both will be missed next week…but (and I believe I can speak for the entire class) your presence during these two weeks made a memorable difference in our community!

See you all later,
Gini

Jackie wrote, “We are a culture of fear.” In what ways must we, as educators, be counter-cultural for the sake of our students’ healthy development?

Susana reflected on a quote from Palmer: “‘The way we diagnose our students' condition will determine the kind of remedy we offer’ really gave me an answer to my question, why am I totally unable to help some of my students? Why? Because I give the wrong diagnosis and obviously the wrong remedy to their symptoms. How hard it is to analyze our students' behavior and see what is behind it! How hard it is to listen to their inner cries for help when no word is heard! How hard it is to really know what is paralyzing them to be opened and willing to learn!”

Angie: “I try to remember that fear is also energy and I try to convert that into positive energy. We can look at fear in the classroom the same way. We can see it as energy that just needs to be switched into confidence….” In concrete terms, what does this look like in the classroom? What must be the condition of the teacher to be able to accomplish this? Can this be taught to students?

Vinod wrote, “We may not be able to get rid of our fears but we can learn how to deal with them.” What are some effective ways to deal with our fears?

Eloisa (quoting from Palmer): “I may have fear, but I need not be my fear…that I can speak and act from a place of honesty about being fearful rather than from the fear itself.” In concrete terms, how may we develop the ability to shift from a fearful place within ourselves so that we are not coming out of our fear?

Lindy’s favorite quote from the chapter was “A good teacher is one who can listen to those [students’] voices even before they are spoken—so that someday they can speak with truth and confidence.” In Palmer’s next paragraph, he outlined some ways to “hear people [our students] to speech”:
1. Making space for the other
2. Being aware of the other
3. Paying attention to the other
4. Honoring the other
5. Not rushing to fill our students’ silences with fearful speech of our own
6. Not trying to coerce them into saying the things that we want to hear
7. Entering empathetically into the student’s world so that s/he perceives you as someone who has the promise of being able to hear another person’s truth. (p. 47)
Can you think of other ways to ‘hear your students to speech’?

Maureen shared her inspiring story about the development of her fears as a child in the classroom and mentioned her difficulty in acknowledging her fears. What may be helpful tools to use to become aware/acknowledge our fears?

Bipin wrote, “…we should be careful because we [teachers] may project our own fear on them [students] which can be a hindrance in their growth.” How can our fears hinder our students’ growth?