I have never been involved in the seismic shift that is a true social movement. Although I was born and grew up when this particular country was facing Viet Nam and civil rights. The world has changed a great deal in a relatively small period of time. My great-grandmother was seven years old when her Alabama family had to release the slaves that they had owned for generations. But I have been part of the type of social movement that is school change and reform. Though I have experienced change at all levels (from personal to institutional)and it seems that the one common factor of all change, is how difficult it is! Palmer is, I believe correct, when he suggests that when more and more people chose to lead an undivided life (or a life of faith!) there is an impact over time on the social and political fabric of institutions. But I agree even more with the notion that at first, the decision to live the undivided life, is a "frail reed" (Palmer, 2007, p.178).
I've come to believe that self-doubt and the anxiety that accompanies self-doubt is a great "de-railer" of change. When it strikes, we default back into the patterns we've always known, mostly because what is known is most comforting to us. I've seen how this impacts institutional change and I've run head on into it as the leader of a school. And I understand it - because I experience the same self-doubt that those who I'm trying to lead feel!
Finally, I really like Palmer's notions for educating new professionals. I find the five "proposals" a great direction to take.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Learning in Community
It has struck me several times that Palmer is reflecting on college teaching and I'm reminded of that again on page 147 when he describes the usual format of teacher evaluations. That's not the usual format for evaluating K-12 faculty and then again, tenure has a completely different connotation in K-12 education than it does in higher education. Tenure in higher ed is, I believe,a great stumbling block to the kind of community that Palmer envisions and to the accountability that is necessary to create that type of community.
I like a great deal of what Palmer has to say about leadership especially on page 164 when he states: "Leadership in the academy means looking behind the masks we wear and perceiving our true condition." He goes on to point out that leaders often are called to see in teachers more than they might see in themselves. It strikes me, from a few years of practice, that this is dead on. People get stuck in routine, they are distracted by the rest of their lives, they coast in those last few years before retirement with the hope they can land the plane running only on fumes. But the leader has to stir the tanks so to speak, to help that person find the drive to make their last year as good as their first.
When I became principal I needed someone to teach an AP government class. We had only one choice at that time - a 35 year veteran of teaching the lower track kids. John had not had a new thought or practice in 25 years relative to his subject and he was coasting on to the finish line. My VP told me he'd never agree, or at least not easily agree, to changing things and then there was the worry if he'd actually be good at it. I told him all the reasons he'd be great at it (much of that was fiction since I didn't really know him yet at all!). I felt a bit like a used car salesmen and in way I knew I might have to sell the used car to the parents!
It turned out that John rose to the occasion. He found his second wind in teaching and really was spectacular. He looked tired at the end of each day but he seemed happy about being reengaged in what I think really gives him joy.
There's one success story - if you have a lot of time I'd be happy to share a dozen or so of my failures as a leader!
In so many ways I think we suffer from a lack of the types of leaders that can bring us out of ourselves and into a new way of being. To move forward with the type of community of which Palmer writes and of which the Christian message compels us to seek, we need to move beyond what seems to me to be a crisis of leadership.
I like a great deal of what Palmer has to say about leadership especially on page 164 when he states: "Leadership in the academy means looking behind the masks we wear and perceiving our true condition." He goes on to point out that leaders often are called to see in teachers more than they might see in themselves. It strikes me, from a few years of practice, that this is dead on. People get stuck in routine, they are distracted by the rest of their lives, they coast in those last few years before retirement with the hope they can land the plane running only on fumes. But the leader has to stir the tanks so to speak, to help that person find the drive to make their last year as good as their first.
When I became principal I needed someone to teach an AP government class. We had only one choice at that time - a 35 year veteran of teaching the lower track kids. John had not had a new thought or practice in 25 years relative to his subject and he was coasting on to the finish line. My VP told me he'd never agree, or at least not easily agree, to changing things and then there was the worry if he'd actually be good at it. I told him all the reasons he'd be great at it (much of that was fiction since I didn't really know him yet at all!). I felt a bit like a used car salesmen and in way I knew I might have to sell the used car to the parents!
It turned out that John rose to the occasion. He found his second wind in teaching and really was spectacular. He looked tired at the end of each day but he seemed happy about being reengaged in what I think really gives him joy.
There's one success story - if you have a lot of time I'd be happy to share a dozen or so of my failures as a leader!
In so many ways I think we suffer from a lack of the types of leaders that can bring us out of ourselves and into a new way of being. To move forward with the type of community of which Palmer writes and of which the Christian message compels us to seek, we need to move beyond what seems to me to be a crisis of leadership.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Palmer V
Good teachers replicate the process of knowing by engaging students in the dynamics of the community of truth. (Palmer, 2007, p.117)”
Boy, Palmer is on to something here but it’s elusive. I know I’ve been part of it, not sure that I’ve ever achieved it in the classroom myself (though I hope I have). Throughout this book I keep coming back to an idea, not an original idea of mine, but one certainly within the Christian communities understanding of vocation. It’s fine to feel called to something, to claim that I have a vocation to be a teacher, or a priest, or a married person. But a vocation must be confirmed, much in the way that the authority of the Church confirms a person’s call by God in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The call must be confirmed by evidence of ability, talent, giftedness for the endeavor. In modern society I simply sign up for a course of study, take the classes, do some field work and be evaluated in a rather artificial and superficial way. That’s the only confirmation we get in the profession of teaching. Well, as a student, teacher myself and principal, I can bear witness to the fact that some who might have felt called, don’t have the talent needed. I’ve witnessed that in every line of work, profession and vocation, and it makes me sad – because it tends to make everyone around the person sad!
"True community in any context requires a transcendent third thing that holds both me and three accountable to something outside ourselves, a fact well known outside of education. (Palmer, 2007, p. 119)”
Palmer in this quote is onto the unique contribution that I believe Catholic education makes to the field of education. We start with the transcendent. We begin with Jesus in the middle of it all, transcending the limitations of this life, and leading us to the transcendent love of God the Father. Christianity can, sometimes become, the default mode in Catholic education, what we fall back on in times of trouble or disagreement. But truly mission driven schools start every project, conversation, endeavor, with God at the center. The goal of the mission is to make good citizens ultimately of heaven – a transcendent place indeed. This is the great grace, and the greatest challenge, for Catholic education.
“In a subject-centered classroom, the teacher’s task is to give the great thing an independent voice – capacity to speak its truth quite apart from the teacher’s voice in terms that student can hear and understand. (Palmer, 2007, p.120)”
This takes great courage, self-control, comfort with ambiguity and I do think it’s easier in some courses than others. I think this is probably essential in Religious education in today’s context. Something worthy of more exploration and perhaps class discussion.
“The community of truth demands continual discernment: some observations are accurate and some are not; some claims of fact are valid and others are not; some hypotheses are warranted and others are not. (Palmer, 2007, p.141)”
This goes back to my earlier point and is applicable to the notion that the community should discern together about many things!
Boy, Palmer is on to something here but it’s elusive. I know I’ve been part of it, not sure that I’ve ever achieved it in the classroom myself (though I hope I have). Throughout this book I keep coming back to an idea, not an original idea of mine, but one certainly within the Christian communities understanding of vocation. It’s fine to feel called to something, to claim that I have a vocation to be a teacher, or a priest, or a married person. But a vocation must be confirmed, much in the way that the authority of the Church confirms a person’s call by God in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The call must be confirmed by evidence of ability, talent, giftedness for the endeavor. In modern society I simply sign up for a course of study, take the classes, do some field work and be evaluated in a rather artificial and superficial way. That’s the only confirmation we get in the profession of teaching. Well, as a student, teacher myself and principal, I can bear witness to the fact that some who might have felt called, don’t have the talent needed. I’ve witnessed that in every line of work, profession and vocation, and it makes me sad – because it tends to make everyone around the person sad!
"True community in any context requires a transcendent third thing that holds both me and three accountable to something outside ourselves, a fact well known outside of education. (Palmer, 2007, p. 119)”
Palmer in this quote is onto the unique contribution that I believe Catholic education makes to the field of education. We start with the transcendent. We begin with Jesus in the middle of it all, transcending the limitations of this life, and leading us to the transcendent love of God the Father. Christianity can, sometimes become, the default mode in Catholic education, what we fall back on in times of trouble or disagreement. But truly mission driven schools start every project, conversation, endeavor, with God at the center. The goal of the mission is to make good citizens ultimately of heaven – a transcendent place indeed. This is the great grace, and the greatest challenge, for Catholic education.
“In a subject-centered classroom, the teacher’s task is to give the great thing an independent voice – capacity to speak its truth quite apart from the teacher’s voice in terms that student can hear and understand. (Palmer, 2007, p.120)”
This takes great courage, self-control, comfort with ambiguity and I do think it’s easier in some courses than others. I think this is probably essential in Religious education in today’s context. Something worthy of more exploration and perhaps class discussion.
“The community of truth demands continual discernment: some observations are accurate and some are not; some claims of fact are valid and others are not; some hypotheses are warranted and others are not. (Palmer, 2007, p.141)”
This goes back to my earlier point and is applicable to the notion that the community should discern together about many things!
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