"True community in any context requires a transcendent third thing that holds both me and thee accountable to something beyond ourselves. In a subject-centered classroom, gathered around a great thing, getting caught in contradiction, can signify success. The great thing has such a vivid presence. In a subject-centered classroom, the teacher's central task is to give the great thing an independent voice--a capacity to speak it's truth apart from the teacher's voice in terms that students can hear and understand. When the great thing speaks for itself, teachers and students are more likely to come into a genuine learning community, a community that does not collapse into the egos of students or teacher but knows itself accountable to the subject at its core." (Palmer 2017)