From an exploration of the role of a teacher’s “inner landscape” on teaching and learning, The Courage to Teach next moves into the question of how a community can be structured to promote authentic education. Continuing with his initial premise that connections are integral to understanding oneself and to interacting effectively with students, Palmer insists on the necessity of connectedness in community life, as well. “[O]nly as we are in communion with ourselves can we find community with others.” (p. 90).
Palmer then explores three models of community: the therapeutic model, the civic model, and the marketing model. For each, he concludes that, although the model has elements that are helpful to education, none are comprehensive enough to support authentic education. Palmer then offers an alternative that he calls a “community of truth.” This model is based upon the modern scientific understanding that nature, itself, is relational and interdependent. Palmer then adds that the model calls for being enmeshed in the subject to be studied, rather than removed from it. Thus, “[t]he community of truth is an image of knowing that embraces both the great web of being on which all things depend and the fact that our knowing of those things is helped, not hindered, by our being enmeshed in that web.” (p. 99).
With this model in mind, Palmer also proposes a third way to substitute for the current models of teacher-centered and student-centered education: a subject-centered education. In this model, Palmer envisions students and teachers, together, exploring the subject that is before them, with neither teachers nor students having all the answers or all the questions. The two examples Palmer discusses, one a medical school program and the other a class of his own, show the promise of this method. To me, it is an exciting ideal of what is possible in a classroom structured with forethought and based upon respect for and the interdependence of all the participants.
Palmer concludes with chapters on the application of this subject-centered education to the study of education, itself. If we are to advance our understanding of teaching and learning, he argues, we must be willing to engage in the same type of study of these subjects that he advocates for the study of other subjects. In this way, he asserts that the inherent isolationism of the classroom teacher must be opened to observation and study, and ultimately change for the better.
Palmer then explores three models of community: the therapeutic model, the civic model, and the marketing model. For each, he concludes that, although the model has elements that are helpful to education, none are comprehensive enough to support authentic education. Palmer then offers an alternative that he calls a “community of truth.” This model is based upon the modern scientific understanding that nature, itself, is relational and interdependent. Palmer then adds that the model calls for being enmeshed in the subject to be studied, rather than removed from it. Thus, “[t]he community of truth is an image of knowing that embraces both the great web of being on which all things depend and the fact that our knowing of those things is helped, not hindered, by our being enmeshed in that web.” (p. 99).
With this model in mind, Palmer also proposes a third way to substitute for the current models of teacher-centered and student-centered education: a subject-centered education. In this model, Palmer envisions students and teachers, together, exploring the subject that is before them, with neither teachers nor students having all the answers or all the questions. The two examples Palmer discusses, one a medical school program and the other a class of his own, show the promise of this method. To me, it is an exciting ideal of what is possible in a classroom structured with forethought and based upon respect for and the interdependence of all the participants.
Palmer concludes with chapters on the application of this subject-centered education to the study of education, itself. If we are to advance our understanding of teaching and learning, he argues, we must be willing to engage in the same type of study of these subjects that he advocates for the study of other subjects. In this way, he asserts that the inherent isolationism of the classroom teacher must be opened to observation and study, and ultimately change for the better.