Everlasting love #lovelearning

'The only way to do great work is to love what you do.' said Steve Jobs, and here's another great quote: 'A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.' - Bob Dylan.

I haven't actually done a day's work for several years. Sounds bad, I know, but the truth is - I'm incredibly lucky to be in a job that I really love, and the bonus is that I get paid to do it. I previously wrote about this in a post called live to learn. Teaching is what I'm paid to do, but it leads to further reward for me because I learn a lot while I'm teaching. What I'm really in love with is learning. It's a love I have developed for my work that has gradually built over the last 20 or so years, and it shows no sign of waning. Any teacher will tell you that education is no bed of roses, but even through all the less positive aspects of the job, I still get a buzz out of helping others to learn, and seeing students achieve their full potential.


The Greek word for this kind of love is pragma. It describes an enduring, long lasting love that can survive the trials and tribulations of life. It's a love that has the resilience required to stand the test of time, but it also allows you to reflect back on the good times and not so good times, and appraise their value. Pragma is a love borne out of a realistic and rational consideration of the object of one's love. It's a love that lasts.

When applied to relationships, pragma represents a fair exchange, a symbiosis that benefits both parties. Those who are in pragmatic relationships often connected because of practical considerations, rather than physical attraction. This is the kind of love observed in older married couples, who have stuck to their vows and been faithful to each other throughout the years. This explains a lot to me about why I fell in love with teaching. It's because I can see the rewards I gain from the effort I put in to preparing, teaching and marking student assignments.

Teachers need pragma - to develop an 'everlasting love' - if they are to survive in a highly pressurised environment. Are you in love with learning?

Photo by eek the cat on Flickr


Everlasting love by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.