I believe students flourish as a result of being treated with respect and good expectations. I have seen beautiful results from treating a student with more respect than he may have had for himself! When he sees that you genuinely respect him more than he respects himself, he begins to respect himself more, and consequently begins to live up to your good expectations and his newly acquired good expectations.
This constitutes my best understanding of the Hebrew word "B'racha": Blessing. By focusing his attention on these good expectations, the student sees himself in a new light. He has the courage to pursue new goals. To teach by encouraging right actions, rather than by discouraging, is in my view, a key precept of teaching.
My dad used to tell me of his grandfather who, when correcting the behavior of a child, would tell the child what a wonderful person he is, and how the behavior was unbecoming to a person of such character as this child possessed. As a result of the grandfather's words, the child would come away feeling encouraged instead of discouraged, loving instead of resentful, increased, rather than diminished in self-esteem, and he would never, ever do the misbehavior again. This has been my life-long model of the highest level of teaching.