The second Chapter focuses on fear, both confronting our own fear and
recognizing it in our students. I think this is a potentially useful
exercise. I know my own fear of failing has sometimes colored my
teaching and lead me to an excessively conservative approach. This seems
like one clear situation where self-reflection could be beneficial.
However, Palmer again goes astray. Later in the chapter, he takes his
past behavior of using Social Science as a personal crutch and
extrapolates, concluding that academic Objectivism is fundamentally flawed
-- essentially just a cover for our own fears. Apparently the tremendous
scientific progress of the last century, which relies on Objectivism as
a central tenant, is irrelevant, and he would prefer we return to the
dark ages?
We are all driven by fear to some extent as people, it is part of our nature. Part of spiritual maturity is learning to overcome our fears, and I think the best remedy to fear is faith. If we are people of faith, we have God behind us in every situation, so long as we are serving his will. If we are earnestly pursuing the well-being of our students, then I think we can be confident of God's care in the classroom, which should help allay fears of inadequacy or failure, or at the very least work through them.
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