Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
Kurt Vonnegut
In the depths of winter break, I keep having one thought about what makes the schools keep running. I don’t think its the law that makes kids attend school, jobs that people need for income, or momentum that keeps the system going. It is not fear, reward, data or research that sustains operations.
Through every hard day, through every hard time, I see interactions with a colleague or a student that has bring people back from despair. Every time, it is actually love for our jobs, for our kids and each other. For many years, I was in love with a vision for educating students who saw themselves as contributors and actors in their communities and in the world. In some way we taught the kids to love the world. Before that, I was in love with what kids could do with writing, with thinking, with art.
The teachers I admire most love their content, love learning and love what they see in young people. I cannot believe it is good for children to spend most of their waking hours in an environment where they do not feel love. We don’t talk about love in teacher education, in professional development or evaluations. I hesitate to go public with this observation of the need for love in our education settings.
Perhaps it is an unconscious secret–the love that animates schools and classrooms that are good for children. That love, that is the magic. That magic is real.