It is a model of how adults can and should but so rarely do talk to children, for it is above all a conversation between equals. Not that the man and the boy are or pretend to be equals in everything; the boy knows as well as the man that the man has much more knowledge and experience.
But they are equals, first because they work as colleagues and partners, are equally involved in the conversation, equally determined to find as much of the truth as they can.
Even more they are equals because the man treats the boy with the exact same respect that he would grant an adult colleague and would expect an adult colleague to give him, takes his
thoughts,
confusions,
and questions
as seriously as he would want another adult to take his own.
He and the boy stand as equals before Truth.
–John Holt describing a passage from Philosophy and the Young Child by Gareth Matthews
Very good reminders in those words. 🙂