n The Courage to Teach Parker J. Palmer shares his inspiring vision of teachers who refuse to harden their hearts because they love learners, learning, and the teaching life. He speaks of the importance of exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life through reflection, discussion and brainstorming and explains how this is done through the creation of community where complex truths can be observed and investigated, where the inner life of teachers is supported to grow and change. He states that good teachers have one trait in common: "they are truly present in the classroom, deeply engaged with their students and their subject". Above all, good teachers "are able to weave a complex web of connections among themselves, their subjects, and their students, so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts - the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self'.