The teacher/union bashing from Steve Jobs is just one of many recent examples of critical statements about teachers as a class of people. I’ve long - since the beginning of my teaching career - been acutely aware of my inadequacy in meeting the needs of all my students. That some kids get left behind is nothing new to me. Conventional explanations, however, are uniformly unhelpful. James Herndon noted our institutional limitations in his pithy Explanatory Note #4, The The Dumb Class.

I don’t know if my dismissive remarks about certain kinds of criticism gave the appearance of smug self-satisfaction. I didn’t mean to leave that impression, but my last post was a little rushed. I’m self-critical and circumspect by nature, and so I’m often reminded of the Jackson Browne lyric…Don’t confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them.

I told my wife this morning that it feels like I’m buried in a media feeding frenzy around public schooling. She said that I internalize too much of it, and I should remember all the kids and the parents, and the other teachers, who appreciate what I’ve done…..This is a pep talk that I hear more and more from her.

I’ve been reading the blog of a teacher who posts at Daily Kos. He blogs as teacherken, and writes from a political/ethical perspective. He’s a Quaker, and I find his point of view refreshing in a media landscape that is rife with propaganda and prejudice, marketed as news. He wrote a diary there today called I don’t belong here, that resonated with me. Especially this:

To me teaching was less a transmission of facts than it was an empowering of capability - of thought, of writing, of perceiving, of belief in oneself, an internal valuation not dependent upon the opinions of others. Call it intrinsic worth. And because I knew I really didn’t belong, I became less concerned with how others might perceive how i approached my teaching and how my students reacted - was what i was doing something that was reaching them? If not, then it was up to me to change, and because I didn’t belong even to the teaching profession I did not feel any compulsion about turning on a dime to find a connection with a student that made a difference for her.

His post is about the need to listen, and the difficulty of doing so when we have passionately held beliefs. He asks:

The meta challenge is this - how does each of us act to ensure that when the one who is different, who perhaps is irritating or annoying, who does not belong, speaks the words that would benefit us, that we will hear? How can we ensure that we are capable of listening, even if it be an uncomfortable truth?

This is a problem now, and it’s one that affects me as much as anyone. Like teacherken, I feel out of place - and always have. I’ve had teachers who made a difference for me, and it was not because of what they taught me - but who I became as a result of knowing them.

I do find value in the views of others, often unexpectedly. I’m influenced by little things that are said or done unconsciously, without a calculated intention. Character speaks to me. I respect nobility, and generosity. I’m suspicious of certainty. Commitment to particular methods is an obstacle to growth. The power of personal connections, trust, and genuine interest are powerful beyond the measure of any set of technical procedures or scientific principles.

Christopher Sessums reflected recently about a book that I’ve had on my shelf for a long time. The Courage to Teach, by Parker Palmer, was tucked away and forgotten. But I dug it back out today and found a section called Ground Rules for Dialog (p. 150). Palmer talked about how, in academic settings, competition and opposition are the rhetorical forms that are customarily used to challenge the assertions of others. He said, “The conventional [social] norm of “making nice” with each other, folded into the professional norm of competition, creates an ethos in which it feels dangerous to speak or listen.”

Palmer observed that when someone does manage to name a real problem, they are met with a “fix-it response” which almost always leaves the inquirer feeling unheard. He developed a set of ground rules for dialogue that come from his experience with Quaker community. “It’s a time-honored process that invites people to help each otehr with personal problems while practicing a discipline that protects the sanctity of the soul.” Essentially, the method that Palmer developed is to build dialogue around open and honest questions, encouraging the inquirer to discover wisdom within.

Bertrand Russell: “Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the process was completed, I found to my surprise that I was quite glad to be done with the whole subject.”

Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.