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Parker J. Palmer

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“I now understand what Nelle Morton meant when she said that one of the great tasks in our time is to "hear people to speech." Behind their fearful silence, our students want to find their voices, speak their voices, have their voices heard. A good teacher is one who can listen to those voices even before they are spoken-so that someday they can speak with truth and confidence.”

PeopleWantSaidSpeakVoiceBehindsSilenceTeacherHeardTeachingStudentsSpeechTasksOur TimeSomedayFearfulGood Teacher
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“In classical understanding, education is the attempt to "lead out" from within the self a core of wisdom that has the power to resist falsehood and live in the light of truth, not by external norms but by reasoned and reflective self-determination. The inward teacher is the living core of our lives that is addressed and evoked by any education worthy of the name.”

SelfLightNamesUnderstandingEducationTeacherOur LivesDeterminationWorthyCoreSelf DeterminationFalsehoodInwardNorm
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“Our equal and opposite needs for solitude and community constitute a great paradox. When it is torn apart, both of these life-giving states of being degenerate into deathly specters of themselves. Solitude split off from community is no longer a rich and fulfilling experience of inwardness; now it becomes loneliness, a terrible isolation. Community split off from solitude is no longer a nurturing network of relationships; now it becomes a crowd, an alienating buzz of too many people and too much noise.”

PeopleNeedsGivingStatesCommunityRichToo MuchLonelinessTerribleSolitudeEqualOppositesCrowdsNoiseIsolationParadoxSplitsFulfillingTornNurturingBuzzDegeneratesTorn Apart
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.”

IfsHumansPainFaithHuman BeingsLossDoubtDespairAnd LoveEndureRefuseDeeperParadoxOur LoveHope And LoveFaith HopeFaith Hope And Love
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about-quite apart from what I would like it to be about-or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions…..Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live-but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.”

IfsWorldWantTryingHeartDoeI CanRealMatterHelpingValuesMy OwnIdentityListeningStandardsIntentionWho I AmVocationEarnestMy Own LifeWillfulness
Book:Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
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“Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one's self. It is not about the absence of other people -- it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others. Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other. It is not about the presence of other people -- it is about being fully open to the reality of relationship, whether or not we are alone.”

PeopleMeanDoeSelfRealityFacesCommunityAwarenessSolitudeLosingConnectedAbsenceFace To Face
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“The people who help us grow toward true self offer unconditional love, neither judging us to be deficient nor trying to force us to change but accepting us exactly as we are. And yet this unconditional love does not lead us to rest on our laurels. Instead, it surrounds us with a charged force field that makes us want to grow from the inside out - a force field that is safe enough to take the risks and endure the failures that growth requires.”

PeopleWantTryingDoeSelfEnoughHelpingForceGrowsGrowthAcceptingRiskFieldsJudgingOffersSafeEndureUnconditional LoveSurroundTrue SelfUnconditionalLaurelsForce Fields
Book:A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
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“Let’s not forget that American democracy started with ‘We the People’ agreeing to work hard to create ‘a more perfect union.’ We’ve lost the idea that politics begins at home with what happens in families, in neighborhoods, in classrooms, in congregations. We called this democracy into being – and if we want to call this democracy back to its highest values, it’s got to be the us doing that calling. That’s not going to happen if ‘We the People’ don’t know how to talk to one another with civility and hold our differences in a creative, life-giving way.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayWantGivingIdeasHardHomeHappensValuesLostDifferencesPerfectForgetKnow HowCreativeDemocracyHard WorkCallingHighestUnionsNeighborhoodClassroomCivilityCongregationCreative LifeAmerican DemocracyGiving Way
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“When we generate utopian visions and hope to make them happen soon – when we elect Barack Obama and expect all our problems to be solved, and solved quickly, by his presidency – the outcome is both predictable and tragic. That is not the way to engage social change in a democracy. And it is not the way to help democracy itself survive and thrive. Democracy is a non-stop experiment. Each generation must help sustain it, which means being in it day-by-day for the long haul.”

WayMeanLongHelpingProblemHappensSocialVisionDemocracyGenerationsExperimentsBarackOutcomesThriveTragicPresidencySocial ChangePredictableUtopianHaulLong HaulNon Stop
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“By surviving passages of doubt and depression on the vocational journey, I have become clear about at least one thing: self-care is never a selfish act -- it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care it requires, we do so not only for ourselves but for the many others whose lives we touch.”

GivingSelfCareEarthClearDoubtOne ThingJourneyOffersSelfishPassagesSelf CareTrue SelfSurvivingStewardshipSelfish Acts
Book:Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
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“The kind of teaching that transforms people does not happen if the student’s inward teacher is ignored… we can speak to the teacher within our students only when we are on speaking terms with the teacher within ourselves.”

PeopleIfsKindDoeHappensSpeakTermTeacherTeachingStudentsInwardIgnored
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“Hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest. The concept of hospitality arose in ancient times when the reciprocity was easier to see: in nomadic cultures, the food and shelter one gave to a stranger yesterday is the food and shelter one hopes to receive from a stranger tomorrow. By offering hospitality, one participates in the endless reweaving of a social fabric on which all can depend-thus the gift of sustenance for the guest becomes a gift of hope for the host.”

CultureSocialDependsTomorrowEasierBenefitsConceptsAncientStrangerYesterdayEndlessHostGuestsOfferingShelterFabricHospitalityReciprocitySustenanceAncient TimesNomadic
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“Death in various forms is sometimes comforting, while resurrection and new life can be demanding and threatening. If I lived as if resurrection were real, and allowed myself to die for the sake of a new life, what might I be called upon to do?”

IfsRealSometimesMightFormDeathDiesSakeVariousResurrectionThreateningNew LifeComforting
Book:The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring
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“Afraid that our inner light will be extinguished or our inner darkness exposed, we hide our true identities from each other. In the process, we become separated from our own souls. We end up living divided lives, so far removed from the truth we hold within that we cannot know the 'integrity that comes from being what you are.”

KnowsSoulEndsLightProcessDarknessIdentityIntegrityDividedExposedInner LightTrue IdentityInner Darkness
Book:A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
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“Community cannot take root in a divided life. Long before community assumes external shape and form, it must be present as seed in the undivided self: only as we are in communion with ourselves can we find community with others. Community is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace, the flowing of personal identity and integrity into the world of relationships.”

WorldLongSelfFormCommunityGraceIdentityIntegrityShapesRootsAssumingSeedsInvisibleVisibleDividedInwardCommunionLong LifePersonal Identity
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“Fear is so fundamental to the human condition that all the great spiritual traditions originate in an effort to overcome its effects on our lives. With different words, they all proclaim the same core message: "Be not afraid." Though the traditions vary widely in the ways they propose to take us beyond fear, all hold out the same hope: we can escape fear's paralysis and enter a state of grace where encounters with otherness will not threaten us but will enrich our work and our lives.”

WayHumansDifferentStatesSpiritualFearEffortGraceOur LivesConditionsEffectsMessagesTraditionOvercomingFundamentalsCoreEncountersNot AfraidHuman ConditionProposeVaryParalysisOthernessGreat Spiritual
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“Every good teacher and every good parent has somehow learned to negotiate the paradox of freedom and discipline. We want our children and our students to become people who think and live freely, yet at the same time we know that helping them become free requires us to restrict their freedom in certain situations.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWantChildrenHelpingCertainParentFreedomSituationTeacherStudentsDisciplineOur ChildrenVery GoodParadoxGood TeacherGood ParentLive Free
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“No scientist knows the world merely by holding it at arm's length: if we ever managed to build the objectivist wall between the knower and the known, we could know nothing except the wall itself. Science requires an engagement with the world, a live encounter between the knower and the known. That encounter has moments of distance, but it would not be an encounter without moments of intimacy as well. Knowing of any sort is relational, animated by a desire to come into deeper community with what we know.”

IfsKnowsWorldWellsMomentsDesireCommunityKnownKnowledgeKnowingWallArmsScientistDistanceDeeperIntimacyEncountersLengthEngagementAnimated
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“There's often a distressing disconnect between the good words we speak and the way we live our lives. In personal relations and politics, the mass media, the academy and organized religion, our good words tend to float away even as they leave our lips, ascending to an altitude where they neither reflect nor connect with the human condition. We long for words like love, truth, and justice to become flesh and dwell among us. But in our violent world, it's risky business to wrap our frail flesh around words like those, and we don't like the odds.”

WorldWayHumansLongSpeakLanguageJusticeOur LivesConditionsMediaMassRelationLipsFleshViolentOrganizedHuman ConditionOddsFloatsWrapsAcademyFrailLike LoveOrganized ReligionMass MediaTruth LoveDistressingGood WordsAscendingTruth And JusticeRisky BusinessWords We Speak
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“In a culture of technique, we often confuse authority with power, but the two are not the same. Power works from the outside in, but authority works from the inside out. . . . I am painfully aware of the times in my own teaching when I lose touch with my inner teacher and therefore with my own authority. In those times I try to gain power by barricading myself behind the podium and my status while wielding the threat of grades. . . . Authority comes as I reclaim my identity and integrity, remembering my selfhood and my sense of vocation.”

TryingTwoRememberCultureLosesMy OwnBehindsPowerTeacherTeachingIdentityIntegrityAuthorityGainsThreatTechniqueGradesVocation
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“... circles of trust ... are a rare form of community - one that supports rather than supplants the individual quest for integrity - that is rooted in two basic beliefs. First, we all have an inner teacher whose guidance is more reliable than anything we can get from a doctrine, ideology, collective belief system, institution, or leader. Second, we all need other people to invite, amplify, and help us discern the inner teacher's voice.”

PeopleNeedsFirstsTwoHelpingFormIndividualBeliefVoiceCommunityLeaderSupportTeacherIntegrityMindfulnessInstitutionsCirclesDoctrineIdeologyGuidanceCollectivesInvitesRootedQuestsBelief SystemsAmplify
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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