From today’s gospel: “Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.'"

De La Salle: “[Your students] must be convinced that your instructions are the truth of Jesus Christ, who speaks with your mouth, that it is only in his name that you teach, and that he has given you authority over them. They must also be convinced that they are a letter that Jesus Christ dictates to you, which you write each day in their heart. . . ." (Med. 195.2)

I often find myself wondering about how we teach. I believe (hoping that I am right) that being a reflective teacher, open to adjusting for the benefit of better learning, is what we should be doing. But I know that there are days that I feel like this description from Terry Heick’s “What Vonnegut Might Say About Your Teaching" on teachthought.com today:

“[T]eachers ladle ideas from content areas into long wooden troughs so that students might feed from them. . . [S]tudents learn to seek the points and the letters and badges instead of questions and critical literacy and wisdom because there no points or badges for them . . . Students become trained to ‘get good at school’ . . . [T]hose big, beautiful minds pressing against the windows of the classrooms, dying to know something about the world on the other side."

I’m not at all sure that any grading system, teaching method, or instructional strategy is the silver bullet that we must seek. More and more, I am convinced that De La Salle’s point, reflecting what Peter said to Jesus, is essential for anything we do in a school. Have we built relationships with our students that enable them to trust us, to believe that we will do the right thing by them and honor their contributions? Have we convinced them that we speak with the heart of Jesus, that what we have to share is of true and lasting value? Have we shown them truly the good, the true, and the beautiful, so that in our daily classroom work, we may together question, seek, and find wisdom in all that God has created and revealed?

Live, Jesus, in our hearts!