Radical Presence

by O'Reilly, Mary Rose

• ISBN13: 9780867094275
• ISBN10: 0867094273
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-04-09
• Publisher: Heinemann

Summary

What a delight to readRadical Presence, at once so refreshingly immediate and yet far reaching in its implications. - Friends JournalRadical Presenceis a book about our lives as well as our work, suggesting that the "secrets" of good teaching are the same as the secrets of good living: seeing one's self without blinking, offering hospitality to the alien other, having compassion for suffering, speaking truth to power, being present and being real. These are secrets hidden in plain sight. But in an age that puts more faith in the powers of technique than in the powers of the human heart, it takes the clear sight and courage of someone like Mary Rose O'Reilley to call "secrets" of this sort to our attention.Radical Presenceasks, "What might happen if we frame the central questions of our profession as spiritual issues and deal with them in light of our spiritual traditions?" The basis of O'Reilley's remarks is not religious; it is pedagogical. She does not preach; she shares. Writing of the human condition, O'Reilley places herself first in line, not as an ego or leader but as a friend and guide. Over the course of her journey, she seeks to discover what spaces we can create in the classroom that will allow students the freedom to nourish an inner life.This is an important book that will have a significant impact on the way educators view teaching and learning. O'Reilley writes, "Some pedagogical practices crush the soul; most of us have suffered their bruising force. Others allow the spirit to come home: to self, to community, and to the revelations of reality. [This book] is my own try at articulating a space in which teacher and student can practice this radical presence."

Author Biography

Mary Rose OReilley has taught English at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota since 1978. She has written for a wide range of academic, literary, religious, and social-change publications and is the author of The Peaceable Classroom (Boynton/Cook, 1993). Her most recent awards include a Bush Artists Fellowship, a Loft/Mentor grant in poetry, and the Sears Roebuck Foundation Award for Campus Leadership and Excellence in Teaching.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Parker J. Palmer
Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
To Teach Is to Create a Space	1	(3)
``Love Calls Us to the Things of This World''	4	(12)
An Experiment in Friendship	16	(6)
Listening Like a Cow	22	(8)
Looking at the Moon	30	(3)
Dissonance	33	(6)
Nourishing the Prophetic Vision	39	(10)
References	49