Being asked for input makes a person feel valued.

And being able to see the results of the input contributes tremendously to that feeling.

When I was in Secondary 2, one of my seniors was writing an article for a magazine targeted at teenagers.

He was tasked to visit and write a review about an unusual restaurant that served fried scorpions, ants, and the like. As I understood it, the concept was grounded in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Because he was coming up with questions to ask the owner, he asked if I might be able to come up with one.

I gave him the first question that came to my mind - "Where did the supplies of scorpions and other exotic ingredients come from?"

He said that it was a good question and, if I recall correctly, I saw the question and answer in the published article a couple of months later.

It wasn't some huge accomplishment on my part, but I felt that I had contributed in some small way, and I felt valued because my senior could easily have left it out or not bothered to ask me to begin with.

In part because of this, I frequently ask my students for their thoughts on how to improve their learning experience. If I can, I implement it as soon as possible, so that they can see that their suggestions do make a difference.