Part I: Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer

One-Sentence Summary

The first two chapters of The Courage to Teach remind us that teaching is an inner journey rooted in identity, vulnerability, and integrity—not just technique.

Some key ideas:

1) Teach from within, not from a script

Techniques are valuable, but they should support—not override—your authentic self. Good teaching comes from finding and honouring the teaching style that resonates with our inner life.

2) Teaching requires inner and outer alignment

Ask: Is my on-stage life (in front of students) congruent with my backstage life (my inner world)? Pretending to be someone else erodes our sense of integrity. Staying true to ourselves fosters more meaningful connections with students.

3) Teaching is courageous because fear never disappears

Even experienced teachers feel fear. The goal is not to eliminate it, but to recognise it and decide: Will I teach from fear, or from purpose?

My Thoughts:

"We teach who we are." – Parker Palmer

The first two chapters gave me an uplifting alternative view to good teaching. I feel that my definition of a good teacher was quite heavily influenced by what was taught in teaching school and through chatting with people in my limited social circle. Subconsciously, I always had a feeling that a good teacher, is what who creates a dialogic, engaging classroom, based on constructivist approaches. And that a good teacher, should be able to do things a certain way and have certain attributes.

That created quite a bit of stress to me knowing how far away I am from where I should be. Palmer's sharing of a survey he did with his university class on what they considered were good teachers, really comforted me. He found that teachers, even those that just lectured the whole lesson, or share life anecdotes that are not related to syllabus, can be labelled as teachers who were deemed engaging and effective by students.

This made me think that maybe, I am stressed because I have not found myself, rather than due to my incompetence. Palmer’s sharing that technique should support, not replace, the teacher’s inner self really struck me. Am I teaching in a way that feels true to who I am, or am I just performing? It’s easy to put on a confident front in the classroom while ignoring doubts or fears beneath the surface. But true teaching calls for integrity—being the same person inside and out.

Finally, I felt strangely reassured by Palmer’s honesty about fear. As a new teacher, I yearn for the day when I would know my craft so well that I can walk into any classroom without being afraid. It’s comforting to hear that fear is not something that can be overcome once and for all (experienced teachers fear too), but something we must learn to carry with purpose.

I don’t have to wait to feel completely confident before I teach well—I just need to be present, authentic, and grounded in why I teach.

Disclaimer: This blog post is written with the help of ChatGPT and the cover image is generated by using the takeaway as the prompt in Gemini.