This morning, I got a gentle but powerful reminder.

In the wee hours, I had a session with an accelerated Grade 8 student—let’s call him Alex. He’s already working through Algebra 1. Bright. Jovial. And full of clarity about what he needed help with.

Before we even began, Alex had already made me feel honoured—he said he admired my 19 years of experience in tutoring. And in that moment, I felt the weight of those years. I didn’t want to let him down.

I wanted to show up at my best. I didn’t want to mix British and American system terminology. I didn’t want my African accent to be a barrier. I just wanted to deliver.

So as soon as we got started, I jumped straight into the substitution method for solving systems of equations (simultaneous equations, for my fellow British system educators).

But then—Alex gently stopped me.

“Can we first go through what I already know and what I don’t?”

That one sentence stopped me in my tracks. It was a wake-up call.

I’ve trained tutors for years. I’ve always insisted: Start from the student. Build from what they know. Don’t just teach—connect. But in my nervousness to meet expectations, I had skipped that step.

And yet, Alex—my student—taught me again what I already knew: Even with all our experience, the best educators remain learners too.

Today, I was reminded that teaching is not about downloading knowledge. It’s about meeting students where they are. It’s about trust, listening, and co-creating the learning journey.

To all my fellow educators—may we never be too experienced to be humbled, corrected, and inspired… even by a 13-year-old Algebra 1 student.

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