Community - Chapter 4

Honestly, I started this chapter expecting one thing, a strong discussion from Palmer about how to build community, and found it not at all what I expected!  I did however enjoy so much of what Palmer spoke of.  One statement that struck me the most was "We cannot know the subject well if we stand only in our own shoes." I LOVE this statement! It reminds me of my childhood favorite book Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech.  It is a story of a young girl who travels across the country with her two eccentric grandparents while they tell her a life changing tale.  The moral of the story is that in order to truly know someone you must walk two moons in their shoes.  The moral stuck with me and even though it is something that I reflect on frequently in my life, I can easily forget as well to put myself in the place of my students.  I need to remind myself to look at my lessons from their perspective and make sure I am not talking over their heads.  We challenge our students on Kairos that there is a story behind every face and we need to dig deeper before we make a judgement on someone or something. I fail to do this all the time.  I think this quote will help me to be reminded of looking at everything from all perspectives and not just my own.  If we give people and subjects a less biased chance we may discover so much we never would have if we didn't walk in its shoes. This connects to the Grace given by God that I look forward to discussing further tomorrow :)