By Clifford E. Knapp,
Professor of Outdoor
Teacher Education, Northern Illinois University, and AEOE Spring Conference
Keynote speaker Spring 2000
“The care of rivers is not a question of rivers, but of the human heart.” — Tanake Shozo
“The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of.” — Blaise Pascal from Pensées
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry from The Little Prince
“The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts—meaning heart in its ancient sense, as the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self.” — Parker Palmer from The Courage To Teach
Ever since you invited me to keynote your spring conference, “Teaching from the Heart,” I’ve been thinking about the chosen theme. What does it mean “to teach from the heart”? My curiosity has led me to lots of reading and thinking. Does this mean to teach with respect, wisdom, compassion, empathy, caring, creativity, and a sense of wonder toward all life, including my students? Does this mean to draw upon my inner passions, feelings, emotions, attitudes, and values (the affective domain), as well as from my intellect? I found that there’s more to this complex idea than I had first thought. Thanks for launching me upon this great adventure and exploration of teaching from the heart. This article allows a brief opportunity to connect with you in an impersonal way before the conference to share some of my thoughts.
The word, “heart” conveys much more than the common meaning—“a life-giving pump for blood.” In my search for other meanings, I found many word treasures in the form of metaphors. Although metaphors can pack a lot of meaning into a few words, they can also confuse and distort understanding. Do the following sentences make any sense to you? Since I live in this country’s heartland in the Midwest and have already expressed my heart-felt appreciation for inviting me to California, I’ll get right to the heart of the matter. From the bottom of my heart, I would like you to search for the different meanings of the word, “heart” and relate them to the process of teaching others in the outdoors. When I arrive, I hope we can have a heart-to-heart talk about this important conference theme.
In my research I have discovered many uses of the word, “heart” in our language. In April I’d like to explore some of these meanings in greater depth and offer some suggestions for how we can teach more from the heart. I’d also like to probe deeper into the meaning of teaching as we do this. Since I have had a long-time love affair with questions, as well as words and nature, I’d like to raise some questions for you to think about before I visit. If my questions are powerful enough, they will lead you to other related questions, engage your interest, entice you into wanting to know more, result in feelings of satisfaction, and stimulate further investigation and discussions.
Some of the questions that have guided my preparation for the keynote address are:
These are just some of the many questions we will try to answer together in April. My hope is that you will find them attractive enough to ponder for a while. I don’t want to be the only one having fun with the conference theme. I hope that you will take this invitation to heart and accept it wholeheartedly and in a heart beat. See you in April.