ABSTRACT
We begin our chapter by reference to two stories. One is fictional; one is anecdotal. The first story concerns itself with the adolescent dystopic novel The Giver and its notion of societal “Sameness.” The second centers on differences in observation that arose between one of the authors, a secondary English Education student-teacher supervisor, and another supervisor who happened to be observing the same student-teacher on the same day. The ensuing discussion invites readers to explore the difference between controlling and loving classroom relations. Our intent is to discuss three dangers inherent in the creation of loving relations, underscore the complexities of conditioning a classroom for those relations, and move on to consider the ways in which the creation of shared meaning can become a part of loving classroom relations. We conclude with a consideration of the “ethos” of love.
