Answering a question

Yesterday Hunter made a presentation about the Benchmarks, and said how "energy" is a very frequently used word in that document - more frequently used than "force," which is so important to us physicists.  Margaret had a pressing question about the distinction between energy and force. (Margaret is off camera.)

(I'll transcribe it tomorrow if I get a chance.)

Here is what was especially striking to me:  Margaret asked Hunter a direct question, and Hunter
1. asked if she wanted him to answer her question
2. when she said yes, answered it.
This is not how I was raised, you know?  But it felt sooo right.  It felt respectful and normal and actually urgent, that he should do that.  I noticed it strongly in the moment.  And it didn't cut off her learning; far from it; she has more questions at the end than she did at the beginning, but they are different questions.  The hope is that she sees Hunter as being on her side, rather than evading her.

In On Becoming a Person, Carl Rogers speaks explicitly about the resources that a teacher should make available to students.  One of these resources is the teacher's own expertise:

He would want them to know that his own way of thinking about the field, and of organizing it, was available to them, even in lecture form, if they wished.  Yet again he would want this to be perceived as an offer, which could as readily be refused as accepted.

I'm guessing this was the offer that Hunter was trying to make.