Confident, Loving, True Education
Written by Emily Erwin
As their quote for the next year, the faith-based book club Well-Read Mom beautifully chose St. John Bosco’s “Without confidence and love, there can be no true education,” a quote that dovetails perfectly into their Year of the Teacher theme for 2025-2026. As many of us parents, teachers, and students gear up for another school year (and a thousands of women gear up for another season with Well-Read Mom), it’s helpful to consider the loving witness of true educators and how it can fuel this upcoming chapter. With this in mind, I humbly offer the example not only of Well-Read Mom, but of a tiny Chilean English teacher named Teresa, a confident, loving, true educating dynamo.
I had the privilege of following Teresa through her loud, aged, Pacific-coast high school one summer in her small Chilean fishing town. Her example stunned me from the first moment I entered her classroom as a young volunteer. She directed me to a chair in the back corner as the bell rang and a couple of dozen teenagers appeared, some despondent, some yelling, all exhibiting zero interest in learning. There had been a fight in the hallway that morning, and someone in the previous class period had tried to set a trashcan on fire. Most of Teresa’s students were, of course, gushing about whatever version of events they’d heard, and I had no idea how this young woman with a twinkle in her eye was going to gain control over the room full of potential arsonists and their accomplices.
And then inexplicably, magically, and with very little fanfare or fuss, I watched in wonder as Teresa charmed a gaggle of cackling, eye-rolling adolescents from the tops of desks and window sills to a semblance of an attentive audience. She somehow acknowledged the drama of the school day without dwelling on it, using it to transition into the course material she had already planned. She intuited who needed a smile, who needed a pointed look, and which kid she needed to stand directly behind. She knew the name of every student and their abuelita, a couple of whom she lovingly invoked to course-correct a stray kid. And the kids themselves responded, not with resentment or bitterness, but with a beloved respect that you could clearly see had been hard-earned. Suddenly, the students themselves transformed from intimidatingly crazed teens to regular kids laughing with their teacher.
Teresa was, and is, an incredibly gifted school teacher, with excellent classroom management skills. But she also was, and is, a stunning example of how the work of teaching goes far beyond four walls and thirty desks. This is, of course, something that we can all remind ourselves, whether our teaching occurs in a classroom, a conference room, or at the kitchen table. Teresa’s confidence, and her love, brought her to community potlucks and family funerals, to basketball games and school plays. She showed up for her students in ways that made it impossibly difficult for them not to show up for her.
In doing these things, she also exemplified another quote Well-Read Mom cites in their Year of the Teacher companion, this one from Pope Paul VI:
“Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
One of the most critical lessons of a foreign language classroom is the importance of building authentic relationships with many different types of people from all over the world. I never once heard Teresa teach on this topic. Her approach, instead, was to fight for a government grant to put an English-speaker from the United States in her classroom, in front of her kids. She showed her students, in confidence and love, how language can help you build community with a homesick volunteer staying in their town for a few months. This witness was, for her students and for me, incredibly more effective than pontificating about the importance of bridging divides in our global society and then telling a bunch of teenagers to learn their verbs.
Like Teresa, the women of Well-Read Mom are changing the world by witnessing more than they teach. Instead of shouting into the void about the importance of community and literature and walking in faith, they walk in faith by building real communities of real women who read real literature. And I will witness, as one young mother who gets together with a bunch of other mothers to laugh, cry, and nerd out about books once a month, that being a part of Well-Read Mom has bettered my faith, family, and community in immeasurable ways. It’s amazing what embracing the journey of a good old-fashioned book club can do. This year especially, like a smiley teacher named Teresa and her students once did with me, it’s a way to authentically build bridges with others and in doing so, grow as profound witnesses of confidence and love.
About Emily Erwin
Emily Erwin lives south of Richmond, Virginia, where she loves to adventure with her husband and young son. Sometimes, she writes about what she’s reading at emilyerwinwrites.substack.com.
About Well-Read Mom
In Well-Read Mom, women read more and read well. Our true hope is to deepen the awareness of meaning hidden in each woman’s daily life. We long to elevate the cultural conversation and revitalize reading literature from books. If you would like us to help you select worthy reading material, we invite you to join and read along. We are better together! For information on how to start or join a Well-Read Mom group visit our website wellreadmom.com
