Tutors, teachers, and parents: here’s the simplest “secret” I know for helping students grasp tough concepts when it feels like you’ve explained it a hundred different ways. Don’t explain it again. Ask them to walk you through their understanding so far.

When students put their thinking into words, the gaps show up immediately and that’s where real learning finally starts. I recently went down a rabbit hole of research on neuroplasticity and learning science that backs this up, and it’s also why good tutoring works: the student stays in the driver’s seat while the tutor can gently course-correct in real time.

I’m seeing more and more fear from parents about their kids’ futures as AI becomes mainstream. I keep hearing things like “AI is going to replace everyone” or “there won’t be any jobs left,” and I get why that’s unsettling. But I also think this kind of doom mindset can become self-defeating, especially when it starts turning into “what’s the point of college anyway?”

I wanted to pump the brakes on that fear, so I wrote a short article outlining 10 human skills I believe will stay valuable no matter how advanced AI gets. These are the skills that help students stand out in admissions, succeed in college, and build careers with real momentum as the world changes.

A student went from “I’m bad at math” to confident and capable, only to face a new challenge: a frustrating teacher and an unfair class structure. This blog shares how we used self-advocacy, smarter preparation, and targeted tutoring to turn a difficult situation into growth, and how students and parents can apply the same approach when teaching quality is outside their control.