We Learn More Than Just Writing

Abstract

I am a person who is most at ease in solitude. I have never felt that I’m very good at connecting with people; in fact, I admit fearing those connections. In The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer writes, “Our intense fear of connectedness, and the challenges it brings, is pursued by an equally intense desire for connectedness. . . . For all the fearful efforts we make to protect ourselves by disconnecting, the human soul yearns eternally for connection” (58-59). When I read those words, I knew Palmer was talking about me. I do fear the challenges that come with making connections, yet I yearn to make those connections. I teach writing and study people who write together successfully, and, in my research, I am drawn to projects that explore how people connect. Furthermore, my pedagogy is grounded in collaboration because I believe my students’ learning and their lives are enriched by the connections they make with each other and with me, and my life and learning are enriched by those connections as well. Consequently, my research and my teaching force me into relationships and reinforce what I know to be true about the potentially spiritual nature of human connections. Palmer believes that the only way we can “transcend” fear is by acknowledging and fulfilling our spiritual needs (57), and I have come to realize that one of the best ways I can fill my spiritual needs is through my teaching. Moreover, as I have sought a spiritual life for myself, my pedagogy has come to include, more and more, consideration of the condition of my students’ souls as well as my own. Palmer focuses on “inner work,” and, through careful reading of his words, I have come to understand the relationship between rigorous self-examination and authentic connection with others. Palmer is a devout Quaker, and his religious beliefs inform his work, but his work, while certainly about spirituality, is not about traditional religion or traditional views of or beliefs in God. The term spirituality—a term being used more and more unapologetically in the field of education—gives most academics pause because of its traditional association with religious dogma, but Palmer defines spiritual as “the diverse ways we answer the heart’s longing to be connected with the largeness of life— a longing that animates love and work, especially the work called teaching” (5). He asks those who have difficulty with the term spirit to use instead the terms identity or self or psyche. Furthermore, he defines sacred as “worthy of respect,” and Palmer believes everything is, in some way, worthy of respect (111). “Inner work” concerns formation of the individual soul, authentic connection between the inner and outer self, and then with the outer world, especially as it relates to teachers. The movement that has grown out of his work, particularly out of his