I admit, it is difficult to explain an F grade with kindness. But the alternative, giving everyone an unmerited A grade, is not kindness, but cowardice. In the long run, students benefit from honest appraisals of their work, and it is our responsibility to provide those appraisals. Knowledge is indeed a tough love. Tom Boyd, a retired professor at Oklahoma, wrote, One can master every pedagogical technique and the subject matter of teaching and still lack the intangible ingredient that bonds teacher and students into a dance of learning.
Love is the drawing force that fans the flame.
In summary, as we become professional teachers, we remain amateurs, who teach for the love of our subjects and the love of our students. We teach because we have a passionate interest in our subjects, to which we have dedicated our lives. We teach because we care deeply about the intellectual and personal growth of our students. We teach because we are intensely, profoundly, passionately in love. Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Harper, 1945.