Do You Have the Courage to Teach?

Last summer about this time, I had the rare privilege of talking with one of my personal heroes on the phone, Parker Palmer. His book The Courage to Teach was reprinted with a special 10 year anniversary edition.

You can read my interview with Parker Palmer over at TheHighCalling.org. It just went live.

Five years ago, this book changed my life. I still keep the original copy nearby. My mother-in-law gave it to me. She was a life long educator and wrote this beautiful inscription on the inside cover:

…because courage and worth make the journey together…
…and because teaching is the most noble of all the professions…
…and because I believe you have the soul of a teacher…

Sometimes it makes me sad that God called me out of a teaching for a season. But I still have the heart and soul of a teacher, and I try to let that come through in the way I go about editing, blogging, and writing.

In his book The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer writes,

Good teachers join self and subject and students in the fabric of life. Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness.

Five years ago, in my copy of the book, I drew a red box around the word “connectedness.”

On the facing page, Palmer has written that “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.”

Since I’ve been with Mr. Butt, I’ve learned that NO JOB can be reduced to technique. Every job becomes a high calling when we bring our identity and integrity to our work.

This week, don’t forget to draw a red box around the word “connectedness” in your work. Good work comes from your identity and your integrity. When you bring those to a job, you invite a kind of deep connectedness with the task, the process, the product, and the people who work alongside you.

Sure, this kind of connectedness is risky. That’s why it takes courage. To teach, to write, to edit, to sell groceries, to manage a business, to see patients, to practice law, to raise children, to make movies, to make music, to sell goods and services, to prepare food.

To accomplish any kind of work with integrity and authenticity and community is risky.

But the rewards far outweigh the risk.

Tagged as: courage-to-teach, interview, parker-palmer, teaching, thehighcalling.org