Who would have thought that a picture of a mug could encapsulate everything I do?

"I promise to teach my babies to love your babies".

There it was, on a white ceramic mug with little hearts in shades from beige to brown, with a little rainbow heart on the end. I'd planned to talk about the Archbishop's judgy, loveless rant about the gaps in today's religions being filled by those who show they care through social justice movements (full transparency, 'judgy rant' is biased language and this sentence is my fixed version of what he said). His words, “We need to tell our story of salvation in a new way, with charity and confidence, without fear”, reminded me of the lack of love in all of our arguments about how to teach and reach every child every day. It reminded me that those arguments 'don't hold water' when held to the standard of the consummate definition of 'charity', of love. (Side note, it also reminded me that Jesus wasn't well liked by the religious leaders of his day either.)

In this episode, I hope you'll listen and remember what educators are trying to do all over the world. Esteem their students and teach those students to esteem others. If woke words bother you, use other words. But if we really want our students to grow into respectful, empathetic citizens, we have to tell everybody's story with love and confidence without fear.

Meanwhile, I will keep on doing what I'm doing. "I promise to teach my babies to love your babies" and I hope you'll be teaching yours to love mine.

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