PDF Journal of Philosophy and History of Education

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION

VOLUME 58, 2008 David Snelgrove, Editor

Editorial Advisory Board:

Mike Boone, Southwest Texas State University Virginia Worley, Oklahoma State University Neil Houser, University of Oklahoma Dalton B. Curtis, Southeast Missouri State University Charles Fazarro, University of Missouri, St. Louis Susan Laird, University of Oklahoma Taiebeh Hosseinali, University of Illinois Ralph Olliges, Webster University Douglas J. Simpson, Texas Tech University George Stone, University of the Ozarks Mary Lou Aylor, Central Michigan University Don Hufford, Newman University

Sam Stack, West Virginia University Martha Tevis, University of Texas-Pan American Jennifer J. Endicot, University of Central Oklahoma Peter Theodore, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Gene Thibadeau, Indiana University of Pennsylvania James Van Patten, University of Arkansas Wayne Willis, Morehead State University Cornell Thomas, Oklahoma State University Karen McKellips, Cameron University Mary Bevel, Webster University

The Journal of Philosophy and History of Education is an annual publication of the Society of Philosophy & History of Education (formerly the Southwestern Philosophy of Education Society). Based on anonymous review by the Editorial Advisory Board, a limited number of papers is selected from those delivered at the annual meeting of the Society of Philosophy and History of Education in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, September, 2007. The opinions expressed in the respective works are those of the individual authors, and may not necessarily be the position of the Society, the editor, the Editorial Advisory Board, or the publishers.

Membership in the Society is open to anyone interested in the profession of education. Only members may present papers at the annual meeting. Dues vary in accordance with the vote of the membership and may be mailed to the Secretary-Treasurer or the current Program Coordinator. Other information may be obtained from the SOPHE Web page at: . Copies of the journal are available from the Editor of the Journal. The officers of the Society for 2008 are

President

Don Hufford Newman University

President Elect

Mary Bevel

Webster University

Past President

Mike Boone Texas State University, San Marcos

Secretary-Treasurer Doug Davis

Georgia State University

Journal Editor

David Snelgrove University of Central Oklahoma

The copyright of the Journal of Philosophy and History of Education in the name of the Society of Philosophy & History of Education protects the rights of the individual authors who have contributed their thoughts to this volume. For purposes of reproduction, written permission of the individual authors must be secured. A scholarly entry, moreover, must be used noting the Journal of Philosophy and History of Education as the source of first publication.

Copyright ? 2008 by the Society of Philosophy & History of Education Printed in the United States of America

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION VOLUME 58, 2008

1. PARKER PALMER: PARADOX AND POSSIBILITY Mary Williams Aylor, Central MichiganUniversity

5. LESSONS FROM THE CIVIL WAR: LETTERS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND WOMEN'S IDENTITIES Lucy E. Bailey, Oklahoma State University

11. EMPATHY: A DIFFICULT JOURNEY THROUGH PUBLIC EDUCATION IN 2008 Mary Woodard Bevel, Webster University

16. A DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION: THREE INTERPRETATIONS Mike Boone, Texas State University-San Marcos

23. WORK OR LOVE?: A CHRISTIAN EVALUATION OF JOHN DEWEY'S VIEWS ON THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOLING Claudiu Cimpean, Baylor University

32. INSUFFICIENCY OF RIGHTS TALK: POLITICAL SPEECH AND PUBLIC EDUCATION John F. Covaleskie, University of Oklahoma

38. EUGENICS EDUCATION IN OKLAHOMA: EXPLORING THE CONTEXT FOR THE STATE'S PROGRAM OF INVOLUNTARY STERILIZATION Nance Cunningham, University of Oklahoma

44. REFLECTIONS ON THE BATTLEGROUND FOR EUGENICS: ENID STATE SCHOOL Michael J. Surbaugh, University of Oklahoma

46. SEX AND BRIBERY FOR BETTER GRADES: ACADEMIC DISHONESTY IN LIBERIA Kadiker Dahn, University of Oklahoma

51. DEATH, DISEASE, DESTRUCTION, AND STARVATION: THE CIVIL WAR EXPERIENCES OF FOUR LIBERIAN WOMEN Kadiker Rex Dahn, University of Oklahoma

63. RICHARD KEARNEY AND INSIGHTS FOR EDUCATORS FROM THE POSTSECULAR TURN IN CONTEMPORARY CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Douglas R. Davis, University of Mississippi

68. EVOLUTIONARY UNIVERSALS IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS Lee S. Duemer and Shannon Sanderson, Texas Tech University

73. PLATO, THE DEATH OF JUDGMENT, AND EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP: A CRITICAL ENQUIRY Charles J. Fazzaro, University of Missouri, St. Louis

77. BEIJING TO BROADWAY: A CONVERSATION OF THE POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK AMONG CULTURAL TRANSMISSION, LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, AND THE ARTS Clydia Forehand, Tulsa Public Schools

83. TEACHER EDUCATION, TRANSFORMATION, AND AN EDUCATION FOR DISCONTENT Don Hufford, Newman University

92. WHERE RACE INTERSECTS COMMUNITY: THE CASE OF LEHEW V. BRUMMELL John W. Hunt and Linda C. Morice, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

98. THE TEACHER AS STORYTELLER Stanley D. Ivie, Texas Woman's University, Emeritus

102. BEYOND THE TAKEN-FOR-GRANTED PERCEPTIONS: THE AKHDAM AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN YEMEN Abdullah Modhesh, Oklahoma State University

107. "WAS YOU FER ME?": ALFALFA BILL MURRAY'S PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN OKLAHOMA Bruce Niemi, Oklahoma State University

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION VOLUME 58, 2008

121. GROWING UP DIGITAL: IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR STUDENTS Ralph Olliges, Webster University

126. LEARNING FROM THE LAST WORKS OF EDOUARD MANET: TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY OF LOSS AND MOURNING Stacy Otto, Illinois State University

131. LEARNING TO DIE IN A FAST FOOD NATION: INITIAL THOUGHTS Shawn Pendley, University of Oklahoma

136. INCONVENIENT PEOPLE: THE ISSUE OF HOMELESSNESS IN A NATION OF PROSPERITY Mary Alice Ramey, University of Arkansas

141. PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS: SHOULD WOMEN CONDUCT RESEARCH IN MASCULINITY STUDIES? Donna M. Sayman, Oklahoma State University

147. EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE: IMPLICATIONS FOR INVESTIGATORS AND PRACTITIONERS Jerry Siegrist, Don Leech, Randy Bass, Valdosta State University, Jim Van Patten, University of Arkansas

150. SOCIETY, EDUCATION, AND WAR: JOHN DEWEY AND HIS STUDENT RANDOLPH BOURNE David Snelgrove, University of Central Oklahoma

162. TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PARTNERSHIP: COLLECTIVE VISION OR GLOBAL CAPITALISM? Sam Stack, University of West Virginia

168. THE XX FACTOR IN EDUCATION Lu Stephens, San Angelo State University

175. "ALL REFORMS WHICH REST SIMPLY UPON THE LAW OR THE THREATENING OF CERTAIN PENALTIES . . . ARE TRANSITORY AND FUTILE" [JOHN DEWEY]: HIGH STAKES TESTING AND ITS EFFECTS Martha Tevis and John McBride, University of Texas, Pan American

177. PEDAGOGY UNBOUND: POSSIBILITIES FOR EDUCATION IN AN AGE OF ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION Peter A. Theodore, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

183. REFLECTIONS ON CULTURAL WARS-TERRORISM James J. Van Patten, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

207. WATERSHEDS IN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION Jim Van Patten, University of Arkansas

209. CULTURAL WARS- U. S. FRAGMENTATION James Van Patten, Florida Atlantic University, Jerry Siegrist, Valdosta State University, and David Snelgrove, University of Central Oklahoma

213. CULTURE WARS, A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE David Snelgrove, University of Central Oklahoma

217. IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM MOTHER: AUTHORING THE EDUCATED SELF Virginia Worley, Oklahoma State University

JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF EDUCATION VOLUME 58, 2008

PARKER PALMER: PARADOX AND POSSIBILITY

Mary Williams Aylor, Central Michigan University

Parker Palmer's search for wholeness has been a complex and continuing quest. His philosophy has been influenced by seemingly diverse forces. Raised a Methodist, his time at Pendle Hill led him to become a Quaker. Though a Quaker, he has been deeply affected by the writings of Thomas Merton. In spite of long-term battles with depression, his life and work focus on hope and possibility. To read Palmer is to embark upon a journey without maps or charts, not knowing where the journey will lead or when it will end. It may be frightening at times, filled with darkness and shadows before glimmers of light appear. There are mysteries to unravel and paradoxes to be accepted and ultimately embraced. While Palmer does not presume to prescribe the journey's route, he supports the traveler by sharing his own stories of his own journey toward an undivided life.

Born in 1939, Palmer grew up in a white, uppermiddle-class Chicago neighborhood. His father worked for the same company for fifty years, ultimately becoming its owner and Chairman of its Board of Directors. Through example and teaching, Palmer's father instilled in him the belief that one must live and act with compassion and generosity (Palmer, 2000).

As a young boy, Palmer was fascinated with two things, airplanes and words. He tells of spending hours in his room, drawing pictures of planes, writing about planes and creating his own books. Although he had no real sense of vocation, Palmer responded that he planned to become a naval aviator and then pursue a career in advertising when asked what he intended to be (Palmer, 2000). Ultimately, Palmer entered Carlton College in Minnesota, the first member of his family to attend college, completed a degree in sociology and philosophy, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa (Palmer, 1998). By the time he graduated, Palmer decided that the ministry was his vocation and he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York City. At the end of his first year there, according to Palmer, "God spoke to me ? in the form of mediocre grades and massive misery ? and informed me that under no condition was I to become an ordained leader in His or Her church." (Palmer, 2000, 19-20).

After leaving the seminary, Palmer began graduate study at the University of California at Berkeley, eventually completing masters (1962) and doctoral programs (1970) in sociology. According to Palmer, "Berkeley in the 60s was an astounding mix of shadow

and light . . . contrary to the current myth, many of us were less seduced by the shadow than drawn by the light, coming away from that time and place with a lifelong sense of hope, a feeling for community, a passion for social change." (Palmer, 2000, 20).

In 1969, Palmer went to Washington, D.C. as a community organizer. He explained, "My heart wanted to keep teaching, by my ethics ? laced liberally with ego ? told me I was supposed to save the city." (Palmer, 2000, 21). After two years of this work he came to two realizations: he had never stopped being a teacher, he was simply teaching in a classroom without walls, and he was too thin-skinned to be a good community organizer (Palmer, 2000, 22).

In 1974, Palmer decided to take a one-year sabbatical at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center near Philadelphia. That year stretched to eleven years as he became Dean of Studies there. The time at Pendle Hill had a profound impact on Palmer's life. The daily periods of silence and contemplation were at first unnerving and uncomfortable for him. It was at Pendle Hill where faith ceased to be an intellectual exercise. "In the silence I was able to reconstruct my faith life in a way that just wouldn't have happened otherwise. It was a much more direct experience of how God was working in my life."(Faith Alive, 2004). Palmer was diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression at Pendle Hill, a condition that he said "crushed him, and yet, in a way, it was his friend ? it kept his feet on the ground" (Palmer, 2000, 66). The years at Pendle Hill enabled Palmer to tell the truth about himself and to write about community, the power of paradox, spirituality and education and the role of Christians in the renewal of public life.

After leaving Pendle Hill in 1975, Palmer lectured and conducted workshops at a number of universities, colleges, schools, foundations, and corporations. He served as a senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education and as senior advisor to the Fetzer Institute where he developed the Courage to Teach Program and published The Courage to Teach in 1998. Overall, he has published a dozen poems, more than 100 essays, and seven books, including A Hidden Wholeness in 2004. He has been awarded 10 honorary doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and grants from the Danforth Foundation, the Lily Endowment, and the Fetzer Institute. Palmer says he is now preparing to lead

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AYLOR: PARKER PALMER: PARADOX AND POSSIBILITY

a quieter life, bypassing speeches and appearances in order to live a more tranquil life and engage in more solitary work (Intrator, 2005).

I must admit that my first reactions to Palmer's ideas, based on rather limited knowledge of the man and his work, were skeptical. I thought him to be too "touchy-feely" and just another guru with another quick fix for teachers and education. As a participant in a summer Teacher Formation workshop led by Palmer, my attitudes toward him and his work changed dramatically. I found that Palmer is his work . . . there is no duplicity or arrogance . . . he is, as he claims to be, a teacher at heart. He leads as his father taught him to live, with compassion and generosity.

Palmer's views of teaching and teachers stand alone in today's accountability-driven (as measured solely by standardized test scores) culture. He describes the impetus for the Courage to Teach program as coming from his "deep compassion for those folks (teachers) who are doing such critical work in our society with so little outer or inner support" (Palmer, 1999, 1). For Palmer, "good teaching is an act of generosity, a whim of the wanton muse, a craft that may grow with practice and always risky business" (Palmer, 1999, 1). "Good teaching cannot be equated with technique. It comes from the integrity of the teacher, from his or her relation to the subject and students, from the capricious chemistry of it all" (Palmer, 1999, 1).

He has written extensively about the fact that teachers receive significant preparation in curriculum, methodology, and pedagogy, but the self that teaches is given little or no attention. It is Palmer's contention that we teach who we are, yet little is done to aid preservice or inservice teachers in charting what he refers to as the inner landscape of the teacher's soul (Palmer, 1998). Perhaps this grows at least in part from the nature of the university itself.

Academics often suffer the pain of dismemberment. On the surface, this is the pain of people who thought they were joining a community of scholars but find themselves in distant, competitive, and uncaring relationships with colleagues and students. Deeper down, this pain is more spiritual that sociological: it comes from being disconnected from our own truth, from the passions that took us into teaching, from the heart that is the source of all good work (Palmer, 1999, 1). Palmer takes issue with the focus of the university on objectivity and the contention that only objective research and thought are valuable. All that is subjective is to be discounted, indeed rejected. Yet, "objectivism, with its commitment to holding subjectivity at bay,

employs a pedagogy that purposely bypasses the learner's life story. Objectivism regards autobiography as biased and parochial and hopes to replace it with `universal truth' as told through a particular discipline" (Palmer, 1999, p3).

University faculty thus build walls to hide their true selves and their vulnerabilities. Not daring to seem subjective, thus nonintellectual, they keep quiet in meetings where plans or curricula are developed that conflict with their own beliefs. Gradually, the walls they build to hide their true selves from others obscure their own self views. Palmer contends that knowing one's students and one's subject rely heavily upon selfknowledge. "When I do not know myself, I cannot know who my students are . . . and when I cannot see them clearly I cannot teach them well. When I do not know myself, I cannot know my subject ? not at the deepest levels of embodied, personal meaning. I will only know it abstractly, from a distance . . . ." (infed, 1999, 1). "Good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they teach from an integrated and undivided self, they manifest in their own lives, and invoke in their students, a capacity for connectedness" (infed, 1999,2).

Palmer returns again and again to the notion of identity and integrity. "Identity lies in the intersection of the diverse forces that make up my life and integrity lies in relating to those forces that bring me wholeness and life rather than fragmentation and death" (Palmer, 1999, 5). Through connecting self, subject, and student in an integrated whole, the possibility for creating true community arises. Palmer elaborates on the need for community in A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life (2004). He warns early on in the text that wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.

Palmer attempts to bring balance to our views of teaching learning, holding that both objectivity and subjectivity are necessary, as are intellect and emotion. Yet our disconnection is "driven by our Western commitment to thinking in polarities: a thought from that elevates disconnection into an intellectual virtue" (1998, 61). Even a cursory glance at trends in public education over the past fifty years or so supports this thesis of polarization and pseudointellectualism. Reading instruction must be either phonics-based or whole word focused. Education must be studentcentered or subject centered. Schooling is for the transmission of traditional values or it is for social and civic reform.

Expanding on Neils Bohr's notion that the opposite of a profound truth can be another profound truth,

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