{"id":70,"date":"2008-03-10T00:30:08","date_gmt":"2008-03-10T07:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=70"},"modified":"2008-03-10T00:30:08","modified_gmt":"2008-03-10T07:30:08","slug":"building-consensus-and-the-democratic-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=70","title":{"rendered":"Building Consensus and the Democratic Experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was sent a link to the Word for Word podcast by my colleague\/nemesis, Mark<\/a> last week. While driving down to San Diego, I listened through the 50 minute lecture and Q&A by Parker Palmer<\/a>. Framing a discussion of consensus and \u201cmessiness\u201d around a parable of the Quakers, Palmer, illustrates some of the major problems with the overly bureaucratic urban school. Is there anyone to stand in the \u201ctragic gap\u201d that is splitting and antagonizing the climate of cynicism within our schools? Not in any consistent way, at least.<\/p>\n

And in answer to Mark\u2019s original question: yes, Palmer\u2019s speech, and the<\/a> book\u2019s<\/a> we\u2019ve been reading have markedly similar themes. Perhaps we\u2019re placating the wave of burn-out too idealistically by referencing these as the texts to propel us further. On the other hand, I\u2019ve been leafing through the latest AERA journal and found some hopeful pages. Will discuss this further in the next post or two.<\/p>\n

Related, this study<\/a>, referenced in Palmer\u2019s discussion sounds promising. Added to the exponentially expanding \u201cto read\u201d pile; I\u2019ll do some digging sooner or later.<\/p>\n

Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>