Bird Droppings June 22, 2026
Teaching in a spiritual sense

I went out earlier to fill up my gas tank so we could go cruising the Island after all the grandkids get back. I went down a side road, and a sunrise appeared. I know the sun comes up, but the timing and the characters all fell into place. A pelican, a sailboat, and the sun couldn’t be better. What’s that word that follows me around, synchronicity? Then I started thinking about teaching and my connection to it.

“Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it’s never living apart from oneself. Not about the absence of other people – it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others.” Parker Palmer

Dr. Parker Palmer is an innovator, speaker, retreat leader, author, and traveling teacher. He is a senior associate with the Association for the Advancement of Higher Education and a senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute. Parker Palmer received his Ph.D. from the University of California. I was first introduced to his writing in 2001 by a friend who was my principal at the time. He recommended his book, The Courage to Teach, to me, and I have given away several copies over the years.

“Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of the heart because they care deeply about their students and their subject. However, the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose heart. Is it possible to take heart in teaching once more so that we can continue to do what teachers always do – give heart to our students?” Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach

I have been teaching for over fifty years and have watched teachers burn out or fizzle out. There is a slight bit of difference between burn and fizzle. Someone who burns out is putting their all into what they do, and someone who fizzles out is taking up space and probably should not have been there. I have watched creative teachers, starting like gangbusters, succumb to the teaching blues and boredom. They come in full zeal and are borrowing premade transparencies from their next-door neighbor within a semester because they no longer have the time to create new ones.

“Bad teachers distance themselves from the subject they are teaching – and, in the process, from their students. Good teachers join self and subject and students in the fabric of life.” Parker Palmer

For many years, I have considered teaching an art form, and I think it is a place where a person’s soul is bared for better or worse as you teach whatever subject you happen to be teaching. If you genuinely want to connect with your students, you open your heart, as Palmer indicates, and this is difficult for many to do. It takes a particular person to be a good and effective teacher. In his writing, Parker Palmer discusses how teaching is a community effort. I reflect on John Dewey and his revelations of education as a social event and, more critically, a necessity.

“As I make the case that good teaching is always and essentially communal, I am not abandoning my claim that teaching cannot be reduced to technique. Community, or connectedness, is the principle behind good teaching, but different teachers with different gifts create community in surprisingly diverse ways, using widely divergent methods.” Parker Palmer

 
In my life journeys, I use a word whose connotation is plural as I discuss my journeys, since I have taken several directions before getting to where I am now. I have found that it is in happiness and solace we find peace with ourselves. The quote I started with today reflects solitude for me: a few moments each day in a spot I have selected away from the house with a view across a large pasture. I can reflect on my day or my day ahead and ponder while listening to the sounds about me. I claim this spot as sacred; some will scoff at the idea that it does not have a church or religious affiliation. I titled my writing today “the spiritual side of teaching,” and these two words intertwine as I look at them and ponder them further.

“Sacred means, quite simply, worthy of respect.” Parker Palmer

It has been about respect and trust for several years I have taught. I have gone about this by building relationships with students. In my opinion, that is one of the most critical aspects of the teaching process. It is not simply a curriculum and a book or several books; it is relationships. I see what I do daily as a spiritual endeavor, bringing new ideas to students who may not previously have had the chance to understand or even experience this knowledge. It had been nearly thirteen years since I last wrote a trust scale for my human development course. It follows a similar concept I had read about in Dr. James Fowler’s book, The Development of Faith. We start trusting, soon learn not to, and eventually return to total trust. It takes good and great teachers to help along the way. I am thinking about the new week ahead, the few days left this week, and the positives and negatives that will come my way. I tend to embrace the positive and spend less time considering the negative. I hope each of you can take a moment to reflect and to please keep all in harm’s way on your minds and in your hearts. Always give thanks, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

docbird