by Jazmine Ponce
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Dr. Parker J. Palmer, renowned teacher, writer and lecturer, presented two speeches Tuesday in Founders Auditorium as a part of the Fasnacht Lecture series.
Dr. Palmer, who in 1997 was named as one of the nation’s 30 most influential leaders in higher education, spoke on “The Recovery of Community in Higher Education: Focus on Teaching and Learning.”
Dr. Palmer felt that “one of the great problems we have in higher education right now around the country is there are a lot of struggles in teaching and learning.”
The premise behind Dr. Palmer’s first speech was that “knowing, teaching and learning are communal acts.”
“Passion for knowing, teaching and learning. It is the mission of the college or university it is why we are all here in one level or another,” said Dr. Palmer.
To support his premise Dr. Palmer told three stories on education that all showed examples of communal learning.
In his first story he tells of a medical school dean concerned when he finds that after the course of medical school the students passion, compassion and ethical behavior declined drastically.
Dr. Palmer explains that the “dean was not blaming the students for those convictions, That dean was saying there is something we, their mentors, their elders, their teachers, their administrators are doing that makes them worse when they come out then when they came in.”
After integrating a learning system into the curriculum where the students where able to meet with real life patients and a mentor, the results showed an immediate change and increase in the students compassion and ethical behavior.
“I think we as teachers, as administrators have to think long and hard about the conditions we are establishing under which we invite young people to learn, it is not their responsibility or call it ours,” said Dr. Palmer.
Dr. Palmer went on to speak on personal stories that motivated him and showed him the process of communal learning.
“Community is the way people get smarter, faster about the most complicated things on the face of the earth. Community, connectedness between students teachers and subjects around living representations of those subjects is the way people get smart fast about the most difficult subjects in the curriculum,” said Dr. Palmer
