Intellectual Courage Definition

I was placed in a situation at a former employer not to long ago which questioned my intellectual courage. I have been a firefighter paramedic for over twenty six years,happily married with two young children and worked with both male and female partners of all races and sexual orientations without major issues until recently. A former employer wanted me to work and sleep alone in a out lying small station with another woman for twenty four hours. This situation may sound nice to some but to allow me to put this in perspective for example the sleeping quarters consisted a eight foot wide and eight foot long bedroom with two twin beds and a small desk. These close quarters meant that if not careful we could literally bump into one another simply by getting out of bed. Intellectual courage is defined by Paul and Elder as "means of facing add fairly addressing ideas,beliefs or viewpoints even when this is painful"(Paul&Elder, 2012, p.9). This was questioned when I addressed the situation on two different grounds one of religious beliefs and the other that it violated company policy. This former employer strongly believes in the modern view of social equality, as long as it does not affect them as a company. However, when I a initially approached my supervisor …show more content…
This created great amounts of tension and distrust between my former co-workers at every level and caused hardship for me professionally. For this reason and a few more I chose to leave the employer and since doing so I am much happier with my work and its