Welcome to my essay series on “loving school” vs. “loving to learn.” For the next three weeks, I’ll publish an essay diving deep into the differences between the two. This is essay 1/3. (If you want to follow along, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a post!)
We’re quick to romanticize “love of learning,” but I’d argue that “love of school” is even more important.
What’s the difference, you ask? It’s similar to the difference between “loving” and “being in love.” Have you ever thought about that? Falling in love is all warm and fuzzy, all fireworks and butterflies. But loving is something more than that, something solid and unshakeable, like bedrock. Not an emotion, but a choice.
The theologian C.S. Lewis paints a lovely picture of this. He says:
“Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years? What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships? But, of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love. Love in this second sense — love as distinct from ‘being in love’ — is not merely a feeling. It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God….
“They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself. They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else. ‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. it is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.”
Now, let’s apply to this school.
