To Know as We Are Known: A Spirituality of Education

This primer on authentic education explores how mind and heart can work together in the learning process.

Behind the prevalent drive for objective mastery, Palmer uncovers a culture of disconnection that alienates learners from their subjects, their colleagues, and their own hearts.

Rooted in contemplative monastic wisdom, the book defines teaching as the creation of an open, hospitable space where truth is known through relationship.

Students and teachers practice troth together when classrooms cultivate silence, corporate reflection, and consensus. Palmer shows that by listening obediently to the voice of the subject, learners replace detached manipulation with mutual accountability.

Moving beyond the bankruptcy of our current model of education, Parker Palmer finds the soul of education through a lifelong cultivation of the wisdom each of us possesses and can share to benefit others.

• Education Philosophy: Palmer contrasts modern academic detachment with ancient desert wisdom, recounting how fourth-century desert father Abba Felix met demanding students with silence to teach genuine accountability.
• Teaching and Learning: Group exercises like the NASA simulation game Lost on the Moon demonstrate how collaborative consensus consistently surpasses individual intellectual performance.
• Spiritual Formation: Meditative disciplines such as monastic lectio divina and Quaker clearness committees offer educators practical methods to replace classroom competition with deep, receptive listening.
• Higher Education: An examination of the institutional hidden curriculum uncovers how competitive grading systems alienate faculty and students from their subjects and their own hearts.
• Also by This Author: The Active Life Leader's Guide and The Active Life.