If I could explain everything perfectly to my students, but did not love each one of them, I might as well be talking to an empty room. If I could find all the answers to educational problems and did not love, my efforts would be futile. If I could buy every kind of educational aid and sacrificed to do so, but did not have love for my students, it would be a complete waste.
Love is patient when it is necessary to repeat a concept over and over to a student who is having difficulty. Love is kind when an irate parent accuses and berates other teachers or me. Love is not jealous when the other teacher has an entire class of well-behaved and extremely intelligent children while mine are not so great.
Love is not proud or boastful when my students improve greatly and really want to come to my class. Love is willing to yield my schedule and plans to fit in with the needs of others. Love does not scream at my class when they misbehave, but seeks to help them understand the importance of self-discipline.
Love does not broadcast all of my students' problems and misdeeds to those in the lounge. Love keeps trying even when it seems a student will never understand long division or the difference between an adverb and an adjective.
Teaching methods, bulletin boards, textbooks, yes, even computers, will eventually be discarded, but love is everlasting. These three things I have learned through teaching: endurance, patience and love.
And the greatest of these is love.
Fr. Ron Nuzzi
