A volume in Adolescence and Education Series Editors Tim Urdan, Santa Clara University and Frank Pajares Emory University Paulo Freire wrote that "sometimes a simple, almost insignificant gesture on the part of a teacher can have a profound formative effect on the life of a student." Sometimes, of course, this formative effect is not the result of a simple, isolated gesture but rather of a proactive and sustained series of gestures on the part of a teacher. Many of us have been deeply influenced by one or more teachers who have exercised a formative effect in our development as students and...