Dan Rather used to end his broadcasts with a single word – “Courage”.
Given the present state of the economy and educational funding:
What scares you the most about the future of school libraries?
What encourages you the most? (What keeps hope and the “Mission from God” alive and well for you?)
In Hope & Courage, I wrote a little about the connections between courage, hope and teaching awhile back in response to one of Doug Johnson’s posts.
Parker Palmer writes:
…..good teaching sometimes goes unvalued by academic institutions, by the students for whom it is done, and even by those teachers who do it. Many of us “lose heart” in teaching. How shall we recover the courage that good teaching requires? …. In its original meaning, a “professor” was not someone with esoteric knowledge and technique. Instead, the word referred to a person able to make a profession of faith in the midst of a dangerous world. All good teachers, I believe, have access to this confidence. It comes not from the ego but from a soul-deep sense of being at home in the world despite its dangers. This is the authority by which good teachers teach. This is the gift they pass on to their students. Only when we take heart as professors can we “give heart” to our students – and that, finally, is what good teaching is all about. ( “Good Teaching: A Matter of Living the Mystery” by Parker J. Palmer)
So … Keep the faith. Keep hope alive. Share what gives you hope and courage!!
