Parker Palmer and "The Courage to Teach" renew teacher's spirit

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By Yael Grauer I just finished my first two years of teaching. They were spent in a very challenging urban district that I soon learned was, in short, not a good fit . The challenges were many and rewards were few. And, although I have grown in leaps and bounds as a teacher from my first to second year (which I'm sure my students would attest to), by the end I was left feeling frazzled, destabilized and unsure whether I even wanted to teach. Enter courage and renewal work. I'd first heard of educational activist Parker Palmer while still completing a practicum as part of my teacher certification course. My supervising teacher lent me a copy of The Courage to Teach-which I admittedly did not even look through amidst the hustle and bustle of the first year of teaching. Still, I'd find quotes from Palmer here and there which always left me thirsting for more... such as this one: "Teacher-bashing has become a popular sport. . . . Teachers make an easy target, for they are such a common species and so powerless to strike back. We blame teachers for being unable to cure social ills that no one knows how to treat; we insist that they instantly adopt whatever 'solution' has most recently been concocted by our national panacea machine; and in the process, we demoralize, even paralyze, the very teachers who could help us find our way." And so I was thrilled to learn that there would be an introductory Courage to Teach retreat right here in Tucson, Arizona. Time spent in retreat--full of self-reflection and solitude (as well as conversations amidst like-minded people) seemed like just what the doctor ordered...and I thought would help me transition form the last two years of teaching and clean the slate a little before starting a new position next August. We met at a retreat center at Picture Rocks. The desert is stunning, and it was impossible to forget when being thrust in the center of it--beautiful saguaros dotting the landscape, nestled in the mountains. A labyrinth a
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