Next to my work with Responsive Classroom, I count learning about Parker Palmer's work, having the opportunity to learn from him, and facilitating Courage in Schools professional development sessions the most transformative parts of my professional life.

Responsive Classroom has joined with the Center for Courage & Renewal and a host of other educational organizations to co-sponsor an extraordinary opportunity for teachers, school leaders and policy makers in Boston on March 28: a half-day experience with Parker Palmer called "Democracy, Public Education and Habits of the Heart: Teaching and Leading in Courageous Schools."

I am confident you will find this session of enormous personal and professional value. Parker J. Palmer is the author of The Courage to Teach and the recently released Healing the Heart of Democracy. To introduce his theme for this exciting morning, Parker writes:

"Democracy is a non-stop experiment in the strengths and weaknesses of our political institutions, our communities, and the human heart. Public education is the most powerful implement we have to grow the kind of citizens required to sustain a government of, by, and for the people.

Together, we will explore ways that schools can help students develop democratic 'habits of the heart.' Courageous citizens come from courageous schools, schools that model what it means to resist the forces that would reduce them to something less than what democracy demands."

I hope you can find the time to be with us on March 28, and I look forward to seeing you there. To register, go to www.couragene.org and click on the link to the event in the box on the right. The program fee is $195, but you can go for $145 if you register by February 15!

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"Bringing Rules to Life"