What is your teaching founded on?

Reading a magazine from our union (not often real hopeful stuff, right?), I turned the page and found a very moving article by English professor and author Wendy Byard. It's about her perseverance in working with a challenging student and the effect it has on him.


So I visited her website and found she is the author of a book whose subtitle includes the phrase "Teaching with Love."


From her website: 
"It seems God has been trying to teach me a great lesson. It wasn't enough that I was a knowledgeable or skilled teacher. It wasn't enough that I worked hard. It wasn't even enough that I cared for my students. No, I began to understand that God wanted much more from me -- what he wants from all teachers. He wanted me to love my students and show it."

Now, I know when I and Ms. Byard use the word "love," some of our audience tunes out. Nevertheless, I will attest that when I am teaching as fully as I can, it is when I am keeping love consciously at the heart of it.  I can teach on autopilot, doing it as my day job that pays the bills. Or I can do it to bless future adults by helping them be the most able people they can be. The latter is a much more rewarding and fulfilling proposition. Like my band teacher, Mr. Hoemke, told us, you generally get out of something as much as you're willing to put into it.
     
Here is a secret, O unknown colleagues, because I think I have divulged it to only one person before.  It's an affirmation I repeat to myself in the mornings: "My classroom is a place of love, order, and intelligence." 
     
No, we don't hold hands and sing Kum Ba Yah. But love ("concern" if you prefer) for my fellow beings and our common life together is the underlying reason for what I'm doing. With my love for them as a foundation, then comes an atmosphere of order through which intelligence can be midwifed. But the reason for the order and the building of minds, the foundation (when I remember to be mindful and purposeful about it) is love.
     
There - I said the L word.  Now let them come and tear a corner off my "Man Card" if they must! :)
     
But seriously: What is your foundation? What is the underlying motive of what you do?
     
Peace be with you, colleagues.