Here, I think, is another clue to finding true self and vocation: we must withdraw the negative projections we make on people and situations - projections that serve mainly to mask our fears about ourselves- and acknowledge and embrace our own liabilities and limits.
Parker J. PalmerA scholar is committed to building on knowledge that others have gathered, correcting it, confirming it, enlarging it.
Parker J. PalmerLetโs not forget that American democracy started with โWe the Peopleโ agreeing to work hard to create โa more perfect union.โ Weโve lost the idea that politics begins at home with what happens in families, in neighborhoods, in classrooms, in congregations. We called this democracy into being โ and if we want to call this democracy back to its highest values, itโs got to be the us doing that calling. Thatโs not going to happen if โWe the Peopleโ donโt know how to talk to one another with civility and hold our differences in a creative, life-giving way.
Parker J. PalmerAlthough there are some enormously gifted lecturers and preachers who do create community with oratory, I like to do anything I can to engage my students with each other, with me, and with the subject. And the subject, I think, always has to take prominence.
Parker J. PalmerIf my life is any example, the work that youth workers are doing is very, very important. It tends to get marginalized in the church or seen as less important than being a senior minister in a large, prosperous congregation; but I don't believe that for a minute. I think this is absolutely critical work in the life of the church; and I think my path in life would have been much different if it hadn't been for my youth minister, Burt Randle, and a series of campus ministers in both college and graduate school.
Parker J. PalmerThe academic bias against subjectivity not only forces our students to write poorly ("It is believed...," instead of, "I believe..."), it deforms their thinking about themselves and their world. In a single stroke, we delude our students into believing that bad prose turns opinions into facts and we alienate them from their own inner lives.
Parker J. Palmer