Pay Attention to Love

"The ancient Greeks had different words for different kinds of love — like Ludus (playful love), Pragma (longstanding love) and Agape (universal love). Sixteen hundred years ago, Augustine argued that the essence of a good life is choosing the right things to love and loving them well," wrote David Brooks in an opinion piece in the New York Times.

"But over the past several centuries our models of human behavior have amputated love," he states...

"This philosophical shift has caused unimaginable harm, especially in the sphere of education. Education is one of those spheres where the heart is inseparable from the head. If students are going to succeed, they probably need to come from a home where they feel safe and secure, so they aren’t paralyzed by anxiety and fear...

For years, schools didn't have to think about love because there were so many other nurturing social institutions. But recently the family has frazzled and community has frayed. Today many students come to school lacking a secure emotional base.

Basically what's happened over the past generation is that we've put enormous effort into improving the academic piece of schooling, but progress has been nil because the students' emotional foundation has been collapsing under our feet."

Source: “The Building Blocks of Learning,” by David Brooks. The New York Times, June 14, 2016.

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