I've spent the last two days with educators, and a physics teacher who I asked to speak rocked everyone's world. Her credentials are truly stellar, yet she uses colorful layperson language when she works with her students.
She tells her students when they complain about "feeling stupid" that she's glad they feel that way. She says, "Feeling stupid is a sign you are getting smarter. It's a sign from your brain that you don't know something and that you are learning.
I feel stupid all the fucking time, and I love it. I'm getting smarter and that makes me less of an asshole. I'm a teacher because I want a world with fewer assholes, and let's face it, that's a good reason to be in college."