|
I will 'all ways' love you
By Riney Jordan
 “I will all ways love you,” the card read. It was the last birthday card I received from my mother.
With only a fifth grade education, her spelling was not always the best. And as I read her words for the umpteenth time, I began to realize how her “all ways” was more indicative of the love that she had for me and my sister than “always” might ever have been.
I’m a big proponent — no, a passionate proponent — of this idea that teachers need to “love” their students. It’s one of those things that is difficult to explain to someone who may just teach for teaching’s sake.
Hey, let’s face it. It doesn’t take long to discover which teachers truly care about kids from those who don’t.
At a workshop I did a few years ago, one of the teachers in attendance came up to me afterwards and said, “I’d like to thank you.”
“OK, I accept,” I said, “but I’m curious what it is that you are thanking me for.”
“For making me realize that I don’t need to be a teacher,” she said. “You’ve made me realize how important it is [to love kids], and quite frankly, I don’t even like kids, much less love them! I’m on my way to the administration offices to resign.”
Momentarily, I felt badly about what had happened, but then I remembered that she had said, “Thank you.” I helped her realize that teaching for her was just a job; she didn’t possess the gift of teaching that was designed for those who are here to make a difference in the lives of students.
Loving someone in “all ways” can cover so many aspects of the manner in which we “love” someone.
In my case, I know without a doubt that Mom loved me when I was good and when I wasn’t so good. She loved me when I didn’t take the time to call her. She loved me when I disappointed her. Yes, she did, indeed, love me in “all ways.”
And so it is with those of us in the teaching profession. As I often tell educators, “I’m sorry that you might have to occasionally be mom or dad to a student. But for many of them, you are the closest thing to a loving parent that they might have in their lives.”
Love them in “all ways.”
Love them when they disappoint you by not returning a homework paper. If we knew what was going on in their personal lives, we’d understand why doing homework was way down their lists of priorities at that moment.
Love them when they are rebelling. I’m relatively certain that any of us would rebel if our world was falling apart. And for many of them, life is indeed coming apart at the seams.
Love them when they make poor choices. Oh, my. To paraphrase scripture just a bit, “Let he who has not made a bad choice, cast the first stone.”
I recently served as master of ceremonies for the Texas Education Agency’s annual Teacher of the Year Recognition Ceremony.
Wow! Here was this year’s crop of 40 of the best teachers from across the state. As I read their comments about what teaching meant to them, terms like “love” and “care” and “patience” kept reappearing.
You see, good teachers — great teachers — know the importance of having a heart for their students.
And just as my Mom was indeed my first and most important teacher, she loved me in “all ways.”
What a difference that can make!
RINEY JORDAN, whose best-selling book, “All the Difference,” is now in its fifth printing, is an international speaker and humorist. He can be reached at riney@htcomp.net or by visiting www.rineyjordan.com.
|
