In this brief retrospective essay, the value of a particular kind of classroom talk is extolled – not the kind of talk that simply feeds back information, but rather talk that has the power to shape knowledge through participant engagement with a range of processes: hypothesising, exploration, debate and synthesis. This kind of talk is the antithesis to “right answerism” and facilitates learning which is active and which prepares young people for a complex world with many uncertainties and many occasions when rational choice is required.