The following was part of a response I gave to a student blog post from our reading of the book The Art of Possibility:

My mom gave little credence to those whose faith only existed on Sundays and only in words spoken in church. If you believe in something it should show in the rest of your life was her challenge and it sounds like your mom lived that challenge. As educators our students are looking for that consistency and belief in our words and what our actions communicate. Do we care about things more than people? Do we speak badly about other teachers or adults? Do we require that they do everything perfectly, but are hurt when someone challenges us to live up to our own words? I’ve often found that students stop listening to us, not because they’re not interested or incapable of understanding us, but because the gap between our words and our actions has caused them to not trust us or believe us. Talk is cheap, my mom used to always say.