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Books The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life By Parker Palmer. jossey-Bass, Inc., San Francisco, 19<strong>98</strong>. 183 pages + notes. $22/ hardcover. The Courage To Teach is required reading for teachers, administrators, and all others interested in education and educational practice from kindergarten through graduate education. Parker Palmer writes about issues in teaching and education. Now, at a time when more and more professionals, from the medical profession to the arts to business and the law (including politics), have sound reasons to examine the narure of their commitments, this is a fUndamental read. When we are compelled by shortsighted attempts to concede our professional insights to the dubious demands of the market, it is a solid and useful tool by which to evaluate, confirm, and improve our performances and our relationships to peers practicing with us the integrity of our crafts. Palmer has produced a totally involving work. From the initial heading in the introduction, "We Teach Who WeAre," to the final sentence-"it is a blessing to generations of students whose lives have been transformed by people who had the courage to teach- the courage to teach from the most truthful places in the landscape of self and world, the courage to invite students to discover, explore, and inhabit those places in the living of their own lives"-we are compelled to examine our own contributions to that which we profess. Of course, there is much else to consider along that path. Palmer says his work proceeds from a "simple premise": "good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher." This is a serious examination of the role and the performance of the professional, the relationship between professionals, what it means to thoseweworkwith, and its implications for the possibilities of educational change. It deals with the soul of teaching/learning, not the trivia. Change, within the context of Palmer's thesis, is not "revolutionary," nor even dramatic, but rather an acknowledgment of the other's concerns, and an accommodation of those demands within the context of truth. Truth emanates not from some absolute definition by authority, but rather from [an] openness to transcendence . . . that takes us by surprise ... [and] distinguishes the community of truth from both absolutism and relativism . . . it is a complex and eternal dance of intimacy and distance, of speaking and listening, of knowing and not knowing, that makes collaborators and coconspirators of the knowers and the known. Continued on page 34 uaker Quiptoquott""'loo,i--------, by Adelbert Mason The following is an encoded quote from a famous Friend. The letters have been transposed for your puzzling pleasure. XSVO HSV TOUTETUFZN SZG GVIEVU STG MFIMAGV ZG Z JSZOOVN, HSV BNAX HIZOGBVIG THGVNB HA AHSVI JSZOOVNG, CFH NTBV KAVG AO. ZOU TO HSTG KIVZH UIZLZ AB NTBV IVOVXVU, AOV GVVG ZOU BVVNG HSV UTETOV MIVGVOJV , ZOU BVVNG STLGVNB AOV XTHS TH. FRJENDS JoURNAL <strong>Dec</strong>ember 19<strong>98</strong> -Answer on page 39 F RIENDS HOSPITAL Hea l ing the Hospital has been Philadelphia campus and in outpatient offices. for those experiencing mental and emotional illnesses. For further information about outpatient, inpatient, or residential treatment, call for a free brochure: 21 5-831-4770. 4641 Roosevelt Boulevard Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19124 215-831-4600 33
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