It has been a long and hard few weeks and I'm finally finding/forming words to articulate my thoughts (be it in long-winded and maybe too theoretical a form). I share this as an illustration of my internal dialogue right now:
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It is awe-ful/some what kind of strawmen/women we can make of each other when we are entrenched within a point of view/regime of truth and confronted by challenging discourses. I am as guilty as any in this as we all are. In encountering strawmen/women, we encounter distorted shadows, jarred reflections of one another. In attempting to communicate in such an "encounter," we rarely find dialogue or openings to commune.
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I'm meditating on Sandy Stauffer's discussion of "radical listening" and the notion of being a "friend" to a text-person-idea (in a DeleuzeoGuattarian sense, see "What is Philosophy"). I'm contemplating on how learners and colleagues (be they "teachers," "students," "peers," etc.) can foster intellectual friendships in which radical-critical-ethical listening can support genuine dialogue as a ground for mutual learning-grown-exploring

A reflection one criticism and self-critique. 

To hear the concern from students (directly or indirectly) that they feel that "I want them to think like me" causes me to ask myself so many things:
- What am I doing that might feed this misconception?
- What am I doing to welcome everyone to think/do in their own ways and have troubling but safe discussions/actions when we have conflicting visions?
- What am I doing to encourage everyone that they can be critical and caring at the same time?
- What am I doing to model ethical thinking and doing?
- What can more can I do? What should I minimize? What should I stop doing?
- What can I do to encourage purposeful thinking and doing?
- What can I do to encourage multiple ways of thinking and doing?
- What can I do to constantly open up things that might be closed in ways that are playful, welcoming, and engaging (but not easy)?
- How can I encourage all to explore cognitive dissonance and ambiguity?
- How do I respond if this concern is actually a veiled avoidance of critical thinking and doing?
Teaching is hard. Reflecting is hard. Trying to constantly become a more reflective teacher is so exhausting, but so very worthwhile.