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The Courage to Teach

Parker Palmer

“To chart that landscape fully, three important paths must be taken—intellectual, emotional, and spiritual—and none can be ignored. Reduce teaching to intellect, and it becomes a cold abstraction; reduce it to emotions, and it becomes narcissistic; reduce it to the spiritual, and it loses its anchor to the world. Intellect, emotion, and spirit depend on one another for wholeness.”

—Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach


the place where we once had a picnic
is now underwater

that one thick branch
of the shade tree
is now hovering
over the rippling surface

its trunk submerged—
holding its breath
for us

Last updated: August 8, 2023