Mary's Minute
“The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.”
My children have endured me saying, “Hate is a
strong word,” when they flippantly state the negative feeling toward a person,
thing, or action. I have the simplistic
view of life that love, in the form of genuine kindness towards all people,
really is the answer! The wisdom of Holocaust
survivor, Elie Wiesel, makes me think that how the words “I don’t care,” are actually
more alarming than the word, “hate.”
With our students, in our professional lives, and in our personal lives,
the most dangerous emotion is apathy. It
is great when we see our students light up with a love of school and
learning. When we see them struggle, and
even hate the work, we feel defeated, but the ultimate defeat is when they quit
caring. As we work towards instilling a
love of learning in our students, and we strive to love life, we need to not
fear hate, but rather fear indifference.
In order to love, we must care.
When we stop caring - about
others, the world, our schoolwork, our jobs – that is when we are in
trouble.
Teachers are keyed into student engagement,
which makes sense. As we work towards love, we may have moments of dislike (I
just can’t bring myself to say hate), but what we never want to do is become
indifferent.
In my Pollyanna world, I still believe that
love is the answer, and now I am convinced that part of the key to love is to
care deeply by staying engaged.
Have a great week!
Mary
Mary
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