I just completed rereading this book in order to give my current review as a response to the material. I was swept up in the author's ability to create a poetic essence that can be a foundation for practical ideas. This style kept me fascinated and eager to reread the book.

It seemed there was a "conversation" in reading this book which enabled me as a teacher/student to grow and expand my own inner core as Palmer encouraged me to dare to move into a dance with other teachers and learners, institutions and movements.

Palmer encourages taking the time to reflect on who have been my mentors and what they have evoked in me. Then as I step into the fullness of my lifelong learning and know who is the "Self" that I bring to my teaching, I have a better sense of "Who" in my students is there to learn. I like thinking that integrity can grow as people choose to hold paradox and complexity as a charging element that awakens teachers and learners. I especially like the idea of holding a variety of perspectives in mind in order to lift up a fabric of thought from a community of people in the service of the subject we explore in learning.

Each chapter starts with an excerpt from a classic poem. Poetry is woven into the text as an illustration of how Palmer speaks to "reweaving the fabric of human community...through the ancient dance of spiraling generations in which the old empower the young with their experience and the young empower the old with new life".

This is a book about the system of education in our culture. Palmer explores the pain of silence and how much suffering is involved in allowing the space for silence. He speaks to the problem of fear both in teacher and student and wonders about the "voice that is there" before speech is heard. Paying attention, being aware, realizing that knowing is relational and animated by desires to come into deeper community with what we know and learning to expand the heart of learning...this is the Courage to Teach.