Chapter 9: Love As A Moral Imperative In Teaching And Teacher Education

It’s simple: children cannot be taught by adults who do not love them; who do not look at them and see possibility, promise, and a bright future for them. James Baldwin understood the damaging effects of the lack of love in teaching and teacher education. In his 1963 “A Talk to Teachers,” he reminded teachers of the dangerous times they were living in, and the fierce resistance they were sure to receive if they chose to advocate for the marginalized students who were in their classrooms. Essentially, he asked them to “count the costs” of loving their students while simultaneously understanding the consequences to the children (and our society) of not loving them. As a beginning response to Baldwin’s call, scholars, including Reid (in the quote that appears at the start of this chapter) have drawn on the wisdom of Baldwin’s contemporary, Martin Luther King Jr., and told us that no amount of professional development and acquisition of “tools” can drive out the darkness of the inequality and discrimination found in schools (and society) against Black and Brown people—“only love can do that.”