Soulful work.

What if we superintendents would start every meeting with five minutes of silence? And what if that silence were proportionate to the difficulty of the problem to be solved? Would we find more clarity, more truth, less ego-dominated conversations in our efforts to solve problems?

Parker Palmer, author of A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward An Undivided Life--Welcoming the Soul and Weaving Community in a Wounded World, says silence allows us to confront things within. Getting quiet causes us to come to terms with memories, feelings and issues that well up and are difficult to cope with.

Palmer, who is a senior associate of the American Association of Higher Education and designer of the Fetzer Institute's teacher formation program, says getting quiet is the first step toward cultivating an inner life. He speaks about our apparent need, even drive, to frame and shape reality with our words in the way we want reality to be. We manufacture reality through our words. We believe if we stop talking, the world will fall apart.

Palmer believes that "going into silence," where we spend time letting go of trivial matters, will lead us to finding inner truth. Deep reflective silence brings forth greater clarity. We can learn the simple discipline that disarms the ego, our need to win, our agitation to promote ourselves and our own way. When we practice silence, we are able to let go of the need to have our own way. The silence quiets our need to win.

Palmer sees our reluctance to embrace silence as a fear of death. Keeping the noise going seems to prove we are alive. If we discipline ourselves to let the need to win die, we will find a new form of life.

Palmer's belief that we need to live undivided lives resonated with me, as did his desire to find congruence in a world of fragmentations. He describes the "circles of trust" that can be cultivated in communities and among colleagues. These circles of trust can lead us to reclaimed integrity, wholeness, community and transformation.

What if we could find silence and in so doing reclaim our souls? Better yet, entire school communities could become circles of trust.

Palmer and I were on the same graduation stage in May 2000 when both of us received honorary doctorates from Ripon College in Wisconsin. I already had learned about his gentle and eloquent style in reading The Courage To Teach, his earlier work. References to his Quaker background are very much in evidence in his books, lectures and reflection circles that he and the Fetzer Institute host for corporate leaders, educators, clergy and community members.

His video, "Teaching from the Heart: Seasons of Renewal in a Teacher's Life," has helped facilitate the joyful reawakening of many teachers and administrators in the Milwaukee area. We are deeply grateful for this good neighbor living in Madison, Wis., who has helped so many of us in education scout out this inner terrain.

Sarah Jerome is superintendent of the Kettle Moraine Schools, P.O. Box 901, Wales, WI 53183. E-mail: [e-mail]