I found a way to work "unconditional love" into my lesson plans for today in three of my classes, while reassuring my students that this is exactly the type of love I seek to practice with them day to day.
We are reading The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, and when I stopped to think about it, one of the major themes of the book really could be summed up as "unconditional love".
It is the story of ongoing friction between two distinct groups of teens in Tulsa during the early 1960s. The narrator, Ponyboy, is a proud "greaser" who has learned with his gang to hate the popular, rich kids, known as the "Socials". Through the tragic course of the book, he starts to see that people are people and each individual, whether friend or enemy, is a mix of strengths and faults and each is worthy of being cared for.
I asked my students for their definitions of "love" (in a platonic sense) and then I offered my own: "Wanting the best for the other person." I asked the students, "Is it possible to still love someone even if we don't approve of everything they do?"
They had to admit that was possible. If it weren't, we would all be very lonely people.
In the end, I asked, "If it's possible for you to do it for your best friend and if it's possible for your parents (grandparents, step parents, foster parents) to do it for you, why would you think it's not possible for a teacher to do it for his students?"
Unfortunately, the student who set this all off the other day by claiming "Mr. Gross doesn't like me" was absent today! But maybe I got through to some of the others.
At the very least, seeds were planted and they at least have heard of the concept of "unconditional love".
No comments:
Post a Comment