Customer Reviews

The Courage to Teach: A Guide to Reflection and Renewal

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first read a chapter of this book for a class during undergrad, and the chapter spoke such truth, I decided to order it months later and I'm currently halfway through, and drinking in every minute of it. Get a pen or pencil ready before you read, and don't be afraid to get the pages messy!

I notice that the more negative reviews posted here are from semi-literate people. Makes sense. If you are actually educated and teaching, this book is extemely inspiring. It is a good counterpoint to the test and assessment-centered madness that is being foisted upon the US by the current radically conservative government. It tells the truth about what makes a good teacher. I highly recommend this book.

Recently I have been teaching Middle School Students as Substitute.
I agree with this book's philosophy. I love to teach younster, but get mad when they do not respoect and listen. My heart is there along with my head.
I need to use my heart more.

This book was very comforting for me as a newer teacher. I look forward to revisisting it in the later years of my career to help measure growth and guide future changes.

I would recommend this book for any who are setting out to teach, and for those now teaching, especially in the public schools. Palmer's perspective can be of great help to those seeking to refound public education as a postmodern spiritual quest. In other words, as authentic learning rather than mere schooling. Such a perspective may also help public school teachers to respond with a transformative vision to the narrow agenda of those who would reform edcation with mere convention or sectarianism.

"The Courage to Teach" should be read again and again. It invokes new insights into your teaching career every time at various points in your life. The concepts are inspiring, and the conclusions honest.

If I have any complaints, it's that at times in the book, the language became a bit thick and abstract, losing the reader in extensive passages that might need to be reread several times to fully understand. For example, a sentence from page 105 reads:

"In rejecting the objectivist model, I have not embraced a relativism that reduces truth to whatever the community decides, for the community of truth includes a transcendent dimension of truth-knowing and truth-telling that takes us beyond relativism and absolutism alike."

To be fair, this quote is taken out of context, and I know that the book is not meant to be read like a pleasure novel... it's much deeper and more though-provoking than that. It's a real gem when Palmer describes examples of his points from classroom experiences, but I found myself choking on the pages of abstract language separating these examples. It took me longer than expected to finish.

Despite my minor misgivings, I highly recommend the book... especially to teachers. It'll be a permanent fixture on my bookshelf for years.

Not since "Spitwad Sutras: Classroom Teaching as Sublime Vocation" have a read a book so focused on the spirituality of teaching.

This book was required reading in an education course I took. I am so glad that it was. It helped me embrace the contradictions inherent in my profession. So many educators and politicians spend so much time trying to "choose sides" between philosophies that are contradictory, but not necessarily mutually exclusive. I am now much more comfortable with my decisions as a teacher. Reading this book helped me stop being afraid. Most of the time, I prefer books that give specific strategies and techniques to use in the classroom, but without those, this book was definitely worth reading.

In many ways, it is itself an act of courage to read this book. Mr. Palmer has taken the rare, difficult task of probing to the heart of the learning experience and seeks to reveal its essence for any teacher willing to explore with him. In this task--like a good teacher--he asks more questions than he answers and he is concerned in discovering the process and the means of learning and teaching.

For me, what lingers after finishing the short book are two key concepts his identifies: identity and integrity. For each individual teacher, the need to have some balanced perspective of self-identity becomes paramount. Do I teach to peddle my agenda? Do I teach in order to be the 'big fish in a little pond'? Do I teach because I like the stage? Or, Do I teach in order to fulfill an inner yearning, even sadness?. Next, the balance of integrity must center a good teacher. Do I seek fairness among my students? Do I build good habits of discipline? Do I live justly? Eschew competition? Seek first of all to teach meaning, itself a subject-centered approach?

See? These are the kinds of questions that echo in my mind after reading The Courage To Teach. I particularly like what Mr. Palmer had to say regarding fear, teaching from fear, and hiding among our fears while facing them. Beauty lies in the paradox.

Now, I look for those critical moments in teaching for what they are. I strive to find my identity in my students' faces; I am challenged to live with integrity in my heart AND in my mind.

No student of educational reform should be without this book.

One more thing: if nothing else, read this book for the research and precious quotes that Mr. Palmer uses. His endnotes are worth the price alone.

Attempting to establish the thesis that "good teaching comes from good people," Palmer overstates his case by downplaying the importance of expertise and technique. For example, he claims that teachers' knowledge of their subjects is "always flawed and partial" and that a command of content "always eludes [their] grasp." His overuse of the word soul makes it sound like only a "good person" can be a good teacher. This seems to be a shaky (or even simplistic) assumption on which to base a book.

Ironically, the most effective parts of the book are those in which he discusses techniques for improving teaching, especially the focus on "critical moments" and "subject-centered classrooms." I agree with his points on "the grace of great things," though the pious tone is bothersome, especially when he refers to teaching as "life-giving communion with the young." The second half of the book is much better than the first half, but it still is a tough read for anyone with a postmodernist sensibility.