"You’re really very brave to allow me to come here and talk about love in the classroom."

Leo Buscaglia, 
Living, Loving and Learning, Part 1

I’m overwhelmed at the pleasure of being introduced by someone who knows how to pronounce my name. I love to talk about my name because it’s one of those beautiful Italian names that has every letter in the alphabet. It’s spelled B-u-s-c-a-g-l-i-a, and it’s pronounced like everything. The best thing, I think, that has ever happened with it in terms of introductions was when I was making a long distance telephone call. The line was busy and the operator said she’d call me back as soon as the line was free. When she called back, I picked up the phone and she said, "Would you please tell Dr. Box Car that his telephone call is ready?" I said, "Could that be Buscaglia?" She said, "Sir, it could be damned near anything."

Today I’m here to talk to you about love and I call this "Love in the Classroom." You’re really very brave to allow me to come here and talk about love in the classroom. Usually I’m asked to disguise it or at least add something. You know, "Love, comma, As A Behavior Modifier." Then it sounds very scientific and it doesn’t frighten anybody. It’s the same way that, when I teach my love class on campus, all the faculty members giggle and poke me as I walk down the campus and say, "Hey, don’t you have a lab on Saturday?" I assure them that I don’t.

I’d like to give you a little background about how I got started with this idea of love in the classroom. About five years ago I was interviewed by our Dean at the School of Education. He’s a very official man, sitting behind a great big desk. I had just left the job as Director of Special Education in a large school district in California, having decided that I just wasn’t an administrator, I was a teacher and that I wanted to get back to the classroom. I sat down and he said, "Buscaglia, what do you want to be doing in five years?" I immediately, without hesitation, said, "I’d like to be teaching a class in love." There was a pause, a silence, just like you are doing right now. Then he cleared his throat and said, "And what else?"

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