It is a privilege to read your blogs and to benefit from your collective wisdom. There are eight themes that emerge from Chapter One that may help to feed our discussion on Wednesday:
1. If we want to grow as teachers, we must learn to talk to each other about our inner lives, our own identity and integrity.
2. Identity lies in the intersection of the diverse forces that make up a life, while integrity lies in relating to those forces in ways that bring us wholeness and life.
3. Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.
4. Bad teachers distance themselves from their students and subjects; while good teachers "join self and subject and students in the fabric of life."
5. If we want to deepen our understanding of our integrity, we must experiment with our lives.
6. The best gift we receive from great mentors is not their knowledge or their approach to teaching but the sense of self they evoke within us.
7. Many of us felt called to teach when we encountered a particular subject or field of study. By recalling how those early encounters evoked a sense of self that was only dormant in us at the time, we may recover the heart to teach.
8. The inner teacher acts as a guard at the gate of our selfhood, warding off what insults our integrity and welcoming whatever affirms it.
(From Palmer's The Courage to Teach Guide for Reflection and Renewal, 2007, pp. 26-33)
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