Respecting the Learner

07/06/2015

I don't think anyone can grow unless he's loved exactly as he is now, appreciated for what he is rather than what he will be...Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people...Children are to be respected and I respect them deeply.
Fred Rogers

"One of the essential attributes of a good teacher — from preschool through to graduate school — is the disposition to respect the learners," writes Lilian Katz in her book, Intellectual Emergencies: Some Reflections on Mothering and Teaching.

"I suggest that to respect the learner means, among other things, attributing to the learner positive qualities, intentions, and expectations, even when the available evidence may cast doubts on the learner's possession of these attributes. A respectful relationship between the teacher and the learner is marked also by treating the learner with dignity, listening closely and attentively to what the learner says as well as looking also for what they seem reluctant to say. Respect also includes treating the learners as sensible persons, even though that assumption sometimes requires quite a stretch of the teacher's imagination. When it comes to young children, this element of respect implies that we should resist the temptation to talk to the children in silly sweet voices, heaping empty praise on them, and giving them certificates indicating that a smiling bear believes they are special. This disrespectful strategy makes a mockery of teaching. After all, teaching is about helping learners to make better, deeper, and fuller sense of their experience and to derive deep satisfaction from the process of doing so. Education, after all, is not about amusement, excitement, or entertainment."

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