ABSTRACT
"Be Engaged. Pull Back", used by Bill Doll in the classroom, was the beginning of the email exchange which prompts the reflections. Much of Bill's life has been spent in classrooms, where change and understanding are key activities. Students, as individuals, are constantly changing, striving to understand and hoping to be understood. It is that topology can open our thinking: Teachers engage students not by becoming "close" but by being connected to students in particular ways; without connections between students and teachers, there is very little learning. Good teachers never know what students will come up with, but they are willing to travel with their students wherever the students may go. However, while always connected, teacher stays out of the way of the student; this is the best engagement. It is important to engage with ideas, with topics, but the goal has never been to become the idea, the topic, or even to be controlled or directed by them.
