Listening-Love and Anhtropology


“If I ‘cultivate Love’ in my classroom and create an environment where everyone feels like they are Loved and respected, they soon learn more about each other and in that understanding, they are more free to be who God made them to be. It takes time, but this sort of culture can be replicated in the classroom.”
One of my online students was sharing how in their professional development, he and his colleagues consciously thought about how they could “cultivate Love” between them simply by listening and letting each other know that they were cared for. He described the results as “transformative” and “reassuring”. That is, as they began to cultivate Love in their professional development, they began to experience positivity and, for lack of a better term, happiness. The Catholic classroom is not simply a machine that produces students ready for the next level; we do that and we do that well. But the Catholic classroom should also be a place where students encounter their authentic selves, daily, precisely in a culture of Love and Belovedness. The role of a Catholic classroom teacher is to cultivate a sense of Agapic, humble, self-giving, and listening Love where a student can, effectively encounter God through others and others can encounter God through that student.
This statue of the Venerable Matt Talbot chained to the Cross and to Our Lady shows how we are bound to each other. This clay original in St. Mary's Pro Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland is a sign that we are never alone. The Catholic Classroom should reflect this Truth. (photo P. Smith)

Anthropologically, humans are not simply thinking machines. We are not some sort of “ghost in the machine” meant to just learn academically and think and ponder. These are vital components to who we are as humans, but without developing relationships with others, whatever thoughts or ideas we cram into our brains are just like a song sung in a vacuum; there is no one to hear it. The Catholic classroom must be a place where students learn, of course, but students must also know that they are heard. We are made to be in relationship with each other, and the Catholic classroom must cultivate that Truth.

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