Here’s a thought you don’t hear often in classrooms: confusion might be the most underrated part of learning. Not something to avoid. Not something to rush past. Something to use. In tutoring, there’s a moment I’ve started to recognise, the pause after a student says, “Wait… I don’t get it.” It’s easy to see that as a setback. But it’s actually the beginning of something more interesting. That moment is where curiosity can take over, where questions start to matter more than answers.

Instead of treating confusion like a problem to fix quickly, what if we treated it like a clue? When a student leans into that uncertainty, asking why, testing ideas, even getting things wrong on purpose to see what happens, they’re no longer just memorising. They’re thinking. They’re building something that lasts longer than any formula or model answer. Some of the strongest learners aren’t the ones who get it right the first time. They’re the ones who are willing to sit in that uncomfortable space a little longer and figure their way out. It’s less about speed, more about direction. As tutors, the goal isn’t to eliminate confusion. It’s to make it safe. Useful. Even a little bit exciting. Because once a student realises that not understanding something isn’t a dead end but a starting point, they stop seeing learning as a test of ability, and start seeing it as a process they can actually control. And that shift? That’s where things get interesting.

Isabella Naumovski