As an educator I often found myself in the predictament of needing "to discuss" an issue with a fellow educator. How to frame what was truly meant as constructive rather than a form of criticism was always difficult. Perhaps it was a situation of strengthening a document or coming in from a different angle in order to win favor --- helping an equal could be an enormous undertaking depending on the ego of the person(s) involved. At times, if you did not know the person as well as you thought you did, it was hurtful to know that you had unintentionally hurt someone's feelings attempting to help. So I guess the issue becomes -- is constructive criticism helpful? Is it worth the risk??
Working with students is all together different from my view. First, they are approachable because they recognize that you are the teacher and secondly, there are many ways to come into the helping phase with students. They usually accept help and reason.
It seems to me that the problems with "cc" comes as we work with "grownups" or those who have developed Mr. Ego to the point that he is bruised when challenged. Any thoughts for me on this one??
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