Speaking before a crowd of more than 300, Parker Palmer, nationally recognized education activist and one of the most influential leaders in higher education, shared his views on vocation and education during the Wittenberg Series Fred R. Leventhal Family Endowed Lecture, Nov. 6, in Wittenberg’s Health, Physical Education and Recreation Center.

The author of six books, including Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach, Palmer, in his address titled “Let Your Life Speak: Education, Vocation and the Needs of the World,” encouraged those present to listen to their inner voice in order to determine their true vocation.

At times, Palmer noted, people have trouble hearing their inner voice because they don’t want to hear what it’s saying. They fear that it may lead to problems with family and friends who want them to be something they are not.
A true sense of self is not honored by our culture, he continued, but “deep gladness comes when we learn to be ourselves.”

Palmer, whose work spans a wide range of institutions, including colleges and universities, public schools, community organizations, churches, retreat centers, corporations and foundations, also stressed the responsibility of educators to help students learn about themselves.

In the liberal arts, students are taught to analyze everything outside of themselves, but by the time they graduate, many don’t have the foggiest idea of what is going on inside of themselves, he said.

“ We need to live the questions,” Palmer said. In so doing, “you discover that you have lived your way into an answer.”

Palmer, founder of the national Teacher Formation Program for K-12 teachers, holds six honorary doctorates and two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association.