Are we teaching the "love of" the the, or just the "the"?

In my office, on a small desk covered with Star Wars mini-figures, a rubics cube, and some Hot Wheels cars you will also find my 4th-grade class photo. I'm the smallish blonde boy in the middle row, fourth from the left. At the other end of the row is Mrs. Paterson. She is the reason the photo sits on my desk thirty-six years later.

I don't really remember much about what I learned in fourth grade. As an elementary teacher of many years myself, I can guess what was covered, and while it might be interesting, it's not important. What I can remember is the way Mrs. Paterson made me feel about being in her class.

She had high standards. She challenged me. She believed that I could do it.

At a recent conference, I sat and listened to Sir John Jones talk about the way schools should be. Amongst his humor were some truisms that all educators need to be thinking deeply about.

One was,

"Google can teach you history. Only teachers can teach you the LOVE of history!"

Like most other schools around the world, I urge my teachers to "address the standards" when they teach. "

Follow UbD when you plan," I say. "Start with the standards. Design the assessment. Build the plan."

But in my fifteen years of co-planning with teachers, I have never come across a standard addressing teaching the "love" of something. I've never asked a teacher to add a row in a rubric to read, "demonstrates a love of calculus", or writing, or painting, or long division. And as I ponder this, I am wondering how to address this absence.

If the role of a teacher is to teach a "love of" something, be it physics or reading or history or simply (but not so simply) learning, where do we start? Where do we put all the effort in and how do we know if we've accomplished it? Can we use the final grade as a measure? Or is it less quantitative and more qualitative? Is it the number of students who choose to follow that subject as a career path? Is it the number of smiles on faces I see in classrooms as I walk through the building? Or is it the waiting list of students eager to get into a particular class with a particular teacher?

Mrs. Paterson was my fourth-grade teacher and she is the one who taught me a "love of" something. She did it by challenging me, expecting I was able, and caring for me as I made my attempts and failed.

Maybe it is that simple. Maybe it is that and a bit more. Maybe what was right for Mrs. Paterson is different for you and me. Who knows?

As a school administrator, I don't have the answer. I know when a teacher has it and I can see when a teacher doesn't. I can give examples of it. I can attest to its importance. I can urge those without it to develop it.

If you are a teacher, how are you developing in students the "Love of…" your subject?