Learning in Community

...knowing is a profoundly communal act. Nothing could possibly be known by the solitary self, since the self is inherently communal in nature. In order to know something, we depend on the consensus of the community-- a consensus so deep that we often draw upon it subconsciously. - Parker Palmer, To Know as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey

I have not read any of Palmer's work (aside from excerpts in other things), but I have been encouraged by several to explore it. I found this excerpt quoted in an article for class in relation to student spiritual development, and found it so beautiful and expressive of the subconscious thoughts and feelings I have had throughout my educational career (can feelings be subconscious? That's another matter to address, but for now I will go with it). I think it is this communal consensus that keeps me in school. As many days as I detest school and swear off ever getting another degree (or finishing the one I'm currently pursuing), it is those sometimes brief moments of community that crop up in class that cause me to recognize the beauty in education, the mysterious, exhilarating feeling of looking across the classroom during discussion to realize "oh, you too? I am not the only one who thinks this way?". It is akin to the kind of friendship love CS Lewis describes in The Four Loves, "Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden)."

This can easily get tangential, and is moving in that direction quite quickly, so I will close. I end dwelling on Palmer's words as an encouragement for why I willingly put myself back into academia instead of doing something else, and what drives to to stay in education in some form for the rest of my life (Lord willing).