"Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
My mother used to tell me stories of her time as a teacher in Australia. Once, at a teachers' conference, in a room full of white Australians, a single Aboriginal woman stood up. She had been listening to the day-long discussions about how to teach indigenous children. She faced the audience and said, very simply:
"If you don't love us, you can't teach us."
This, in essence, is what is missing from so much education today. We don't discuss love because it seems out of place in academic settings. The pressures of economics, immigration, and international competition are examined in great detail, but matters of human connection, respect, and affection are not. And in the climate of fear and legalism brought on by sexual abuse scandals, we are in danger of losing sight of this basic truth:
If you do not love, you cannot teach.
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