I think it's absolutely critical; it might be the most important thing in a classroom.
Because everyone is afraid to speak up.
I mean, most students are.
Either they think it's not cool to speak up, to give their opinion, or to offer something,
or they're afraid that what they're going to say is stupid,
but I have to create an atmosphere in my classroom where anything goes.
As long as it's not offensive.
You know, we can test ideas that we're experimenting with learning.
And out of the experiment process, we'll come to a better understanding of what we truly believe.
But in order for that experiment to happen,
there can't be any sense in the room that anyone is right or wrong in what they're thinking.
We're testing out ideas.
In fact, I'm pretty friendly to my class but if I get any suspicion,
that anyone in the classroom is belittling someone else,
no matter what they say, I will nip that in the bud so fast.
Well partly it's selfish because if I create an atmosphere where people are afraid to offer something,
then my classes will just die.
I'll be talking to myself.
So, that's why I think that's so important.
How I do that?
I think it begins with me.
My absolute respect for my students and what they're thinking.
Even if on the surface it seems absurd.
Or wrong-headed.
I still will treat them with total respect.
Because I have to model for my students what respect, for the learning process, is.
And they will mimic me.
And if I'm disrespectful to the students,
I don't know, I imagine that some teachers,
and I guess it could work, some teachers who probably believe that it's their job to argue with students.
Well I was never particularly fond of arguing anyway, I just don't do that.
I'll listen to anybody.
And I don't even particularly want to change somebody's point of view.
Or change their mind.
I don't care if they're different from me.
It's no skin off my back.
And I'll listen; something fruitful will come out of that.
So I never did like to argue.
It's just my personality.
So in the classroom, my teaching style is not to have people think through argumentation.
I want to listen.
And I show that, I know I show that in the room by just the way I look.
Body posture, my facial expression; and no matter what a student is saying, I'm listening.
And I'll acknowledge it when they're done.
Or even praise them or thank them for offering that.
And I don't care how many students in the room disagree with what that fellow student said.
To me, that's irrelevant.
We're not in here to all agree.
We're in here to differ, to be ourselves, and to share our ideas.
I think, how do I do that?
There's no methodology to it.
It's more the personality of the classroom.
And everyone begins to take on, hopefully, what I model, of absolute respect.