The title of this post is the primary rule for Parker Palmer's "Circles of Trust" from A Hidden Wholeness that I mentioned previously. It was developed over years of running workshops in which individuals could give voice to their "true self". Palmer argues that we bottle up our true self out of fear of what others might think. We surround ourselves with such noise, distraction, and quiet compliance to expectations that we forget what it's like to venture out of our existential caves. Think Punxsutawney Phil on Feb 2nd but on a much more significant and personal scale. If we gain the courage to poke our nose out and sniff the air, a "fixer" in the crowd can push us deep into the cave thinking long and hard before ever crawling out again. Believe me, it won't be six weeks before you come back out -- more like six years, if that!
Palmer's book on finding the safe space to let your true self speak and to listen to what you really think when unfettered affected me deeply. As I've said, it's been a long time since I thought of myself primarily as a sociology professor -- and administrative life leaves its share of bruises -- but I'm eager to let my true self speak.
Palmer's book isn't about the classroom -- it's far too much of a contrived and unsafe environment for the deep work he imagines. But I've been thinking about the students who will be in my classes. Even within the great confines of a Christian University, they have been pushed to academic success by learning to hold their true self in check. It is far better to jump through the professor's required hoops and to stay mildly disengaged. This brings out the strategic and bulemic learner responses I discussed last time.
But I've heard faculty for years say that we want Christian liberal arts education to make a difference in how students live their lives, not simply while in class but for generations afterward. If that's not our core mission, we have a hard time defending our existence. What Palmer helps me realize is that students can only make those deep changes if they can take the risk of incorporating the lessons learned in class into the individual identity. Way too much of education in America works directly counter to those goals. It strikes me that the first task in my classes is to engage students in the conscious process of setting aside the "taken for granted" nature of education they've become so good at. Only then can we really work together in educating the soul. If I break Palmer's rule in discussion or in paper comments or in a hallway conversation, I set back our goals and suck the life out of the educational enterprise.
This idea of Palmer's shares some deep commitments with Ken Bain's "Best Teachers". There is much in his wonderful book that I'll need to re-read on a regular basis. But some lessons I can appropriate on the first day of class in September.
First, the best teachers "set high expectations and conveyed a strong trust in their students' abilities to meet them". They are challenging and encouraging simultaneously. They stand in stark contrast to those professors who measure their own ego by how tough they were on students "who didn't belong here". My task for three hours per week is to give the student permission to engage the class material in truly significant ways.
Second, the best teachers "start with the students rather than the discipline." Where are they in their journey? What do they care about? What questions have the framed already? Only then should we make a connection to sociology or liberal arts or criminological theory. It's not that this is more enjoyable; it is. It's that there is a proven connection between past schemas and new learning. Such an approach validates who these students are while building upon that with new perspectives. This is so much better than the strategy engaged in by those who think the professor's job is to show students that their past knowledge was woefully inadequate. Is it really surprising that students in those aggressive settings 1) become strategic learners, 2) build defensive walls around the ego, and 3) forget everything when they sell back their textbook (if not sooner)?
Third, the best teachers "displayed not power but an investment in their students." One of the points of greatest commonality between Palmer's writing and Bain's teachers is that the best teachers don't need to exercise their authority for all to see. I do have a Ph.D. in sociology and I'm proud to have it. I believe I have something to share and I want others to be as thrilled with the topic as I am. But it's not important that I be Dr. Hawthorne or Professor. Those are part of who I am, but not the driving part. I'm reminded of one of the best sociology presentations I ever heard, given by Ray DeVries of St. Olaf. Ray was talking about "structural evil" but instead of talking about the normal issues of race, gender, and social class, he challenged us to consider the ways in which we can exert power in a classroom to make students do whatever we say. He suggested that we name that as the evil manipulation it is, repent, and build relationships. At least that's what I took away -- it was over 20 years ago but I've held on to the message even when I failed to live it out.
If my students live in fear of sharing of themselves, are concerned about their ability to repeat "the Hawthorne view of the world", or don't believe they can perform, real damage is done to their true self. That damage may not be great (it's only three hours a week, after all) but it's still there. More significantly, a chance to heal some of the past damage has been lost.
My pastor, T. Scott Daniels, is working through a year-long series on the book of Mark. The one message in Mark he says (and he's right) is "the Kingdom of God is at hand." He says that we are living in a time of two Kingdoms, one of principalities and powers and the other of Grace given by the Spirit. I pray that my classes will operate according to the values of the coming Kingdom. Maybe my students will find healing and courage on Monday and Wednesday afternoons beginning in September. That is, if I don't mess it up by trying to fix everybody!
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