For my choice book this semester I am reading The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life by Parker J. Palmer (1998). I was instantly taken by the heart of Palmer, his passion for teaching, and for teachers. This is the perfect book at the perfect time for me, as I enter into this vocation.
Mr. Palmer’s honest and forthright views and insights about teaching are music to my ears. He speaks of the joys and heartaches that teaching can provoke. As a teacher candidate, I have experienced both the good days and bad days that Palmers describes on page one. And I was happy to read that caring about the bad days is a good thing, in his opinion. With so little experience under my belt, I have had my share of bad days (or lessons), where I went home in despair, trying to figure out how and where I went wrong. Palmer’s statement on page one, “we teach who we are” is a compelling introduction and makes me want to read on…
Palmer’s emphasis on getting to know the teacher within makes perfect sense to me. How can I teach my students if I don’t know where I’m coming from as a teacher? He also speaks of connections with students being made through a teacher’s heart, not their methods. (p. 11). This holds so true of my teaching. I can know my lesson inside and out but if my heart is not there with my kids the lesson comes up empty. If a person were to remember the name of any good teacher they had in the past, that teacher was most definitely, in my opinion, teaching from the heart.
On page 25, Palmer speaks of the transition from apprentice to mentor, and how at one point he realized that it was time for him to “offer to younger people the gift (of mentoring) that had been given to me when I was young.” That statement brought about an epiphany for me in which I realized that I have not had a lot of good mentors in my life. My professional and personal life has been a series of trial and error, attempting to mentor myself, I now realize. Perhaps that is why it took me 50 years to realize that my life’s passion lay in teaching! I was raised in a dysfunctional alcoholic home, with a father who was extremely mean and verbally abusive. I have always been envious of people with nice fathers and wondered what it would have been like to grow up with a father who supported and loved me. Now I am realizing that I was short-changed in the mentoring department as well. Not that I am feeling sorry for myself; just another way to reach within and understand the person I am today.
“Subjects That Chose Us” (p. 25). Again, Palmer speaks to my heart when he explains that we didn’t just choose our subjects, they chose us. For me, this is so true. I “found” myself through sports as a kid. My self-worth and confidence were built around my athletic ability and love of sports and outdoor activities. This explains the passion and heart I bring to teaching PE today. When I chose to switch careers several years ago and pursue a teaching degree, people were not at all approving of the fact that I only wanted to teach PE. The consensus was that I needed to make myself more “marketable” by having an add-on to my credential in science or another academic subject. I listened to my heart, which was saying, “If I can’t teach PE I don’t want to teach.” As fortune would have it, I am entering the teaching field at a time when PE teachers are in great demand. I will not say I told you so to all the naysayers…