Learning to Love

All human persons are "handicapped" in one way or another. We are born with a fallen nature and are constantly tempted to make lazy, pleasure-seeking, unhealthy decisions. We all have our weaknesses.

However, the good news is that we all have different weaknesses. Other people have strengths where we have weaknesses. Thus, one person teaches and another learns. One person designs a computer, another builds it, yet another buys and uses it. One person cooks, everybody eats. We all need each other. If a community is large and organized enough there is at least one person who can do each task necessary to sustain the life of the community.

Some people are very artistic. They create beautiful art and music. Some people like to work with numbers. They do accounting. Some can express ideas in writing. They become authors. Some star in sports or operate businesses.

Some people need special teaching or special care, sometimes all their lives. It is these people that modern society often fails to appreciate. They seem to take our time and money without being able to make any contribution that is considered valuable in a consumer economy. In the consumer mindset non producers are segregated and shunned. They seem quite worthless. These are the students in the self-contained classroom at the end of a long hall. They are the ones who populate institutions. The Nazis used them for medical experimentation.

In sharp contrast to the consumer mentality, Christian tradition values the contribution of the poor and the weak. "Love God with your whole heart, your whole mind, your whole soul , and your whole strength and your neighbor as yourself. That sums up the law and the prophets," Our Lord tells us. We learn to love by loving, especially those who can't love us back. We learn generosity by giving, especially to those who don't return our gifts. We learn patience from those who most try our patience.

We develop as teachers and parents by instructing those who have the most difficulty. Bright and eager students are pleasant to work with, but they don't need the best instruction in order to learn anything at all. The struggling students are the ones who inspire their parents and teachers to grow in excellence. I have begun to think that all teachers should be trained by teaching the most difficult students first.

Ever since the beginning of special education thirty-five years ago, more and more students have been removed from the regular classroom and instructed by specialists. Now we have "galloping curriculums" that move too fast for too many students. The children who used to slow things down to a reasonable pace aren't there anymore. Teachers, parents, and students alike feel pressured to keep up with a pace that just keeps getting faster and faster. "Why do children have to learn everything in elementary school, anyway?" you hear people ask.

Far from being throwaway people, the poor and the weak are a great gift to help us be all that we can be. One person needs a gift. Another person needs to give a gift. In that way a community of love is built. There's nothing more important than that.

Mary Sue Laing, M.Ed.
Resource Teacher, St. Ambrose School
newskill7@msn.com

by Mary Sue Laing, M. Ed., New Skill, Inc. Academic Tutor