When Are You Ready to Teach?

An Author’s Column by Tymur Levitin

People ask this question constantly — sometimes openly, sometimes silently:

When are you ready to teach?

Is it when you’re young?
When you’re experienced?
When you’ve collected enough diplomas, certificates, hours, years?

The honest answer is uncomfortable:

There is no formula.

And that’s exactly why this question matters.

Age Is a Distraction

Some people are ready at seventeen.
Some are not ready at sixty.

That is not provocation — it is observation.

Age does not create readiness.
Time does not guarantee maturity.
Experience does not automatically turn into understanding.

Teaching is not a biological stage.
It is a state.

The Hunger of the Young Teacher

A young teacher often has something priceless:
they are not yet tired of the world.

They still believe that effort matters.
They are curious.
They are willing to rethink, to try, to fail publicly.

They may lack experience — yes.
They may answer “correctly” rather than “deeply” — yes.

But they are alive in the process.

The danger begins only when youth pretends to be authority instead of growth.

The Weight of Experience

An experienced teacher has seen things break.

Methods that failed.
Students who disappeared.
Rules that did not work outside the textbook.

That experience is not romantic.
It removes illusions.

A good experienced teacher no longer sells perfection.
They sell honesty.

They learn from students.
They rethink language because language keeps changing.
They are not ashamed to say: “Let’s figure this out together.”

A bad experienced teacher hides behind the past.

The Most Difficult Stage: “In Between”

Teachers in the middle often carry the heaviest burden.

They know too much to be naïve —
and not enough to be free from doubt.

They have tools, but not always clarity.
Confidence, but not always direction.

This is where many either grow —
or freeze.

The Real Line That Matters: Boundaries

Here is the line most people avoid drawing:

A teacher who respects themselves knows where they stop.

“This is my field.”
“This is not.”
“This I can teach honestly.”
“This I should not touch.”

That is not laziness.
That is ethics.

You cannot teach everything.
And pretending you can is the fastest way to lose trust — including self-trust.

The Moment Nobody Talks About

At some point, teaching begins with a quiet internal act:

You give yourself permission.

Permission to speak.
Permission to guide.
Permission to influence another person’s thinking.

That permission is heavier than any diploma.

Because once you give it, you are responsible —
not for knowledge, but for direction.

Diplomas, Experience, and the Lie of Absolutes

Yes, diplomas matter.
Yes, experience matters.

But neither replaces judgment.

You can know a subject and still be unable to teach it.
You can teach brilliantly without fitting into a neat institutional formula.

There is no universal recipe.
Anyone who claims there is — is simplifying reality for comfort.

Why There Is No Formula — and Never Will Be

Teaching happens between two living minds.

Not between rules.
Not between checklists.
Not between ages.

It happens where honesty meets responsibility.

And that cannot be automated.

Final Thought

A teacher is not someone who knows more.

A teacher is someone who:

understands their limits,
continues to learn,
and accepts responsibility for another person’s path — not their obedience.

If that sounds uncomfortable — good.

That discomfort is usually the first sign of readiness.

Author’s Note

This article is an author’s column written from lived teaching experience, not from theory or institutional templates.
It reflects personal responsibility, ethical boundaries, and real classroom reality.

Author: Tymur Levitin
Founder, Director, Senior Teacher
Levitin Language School | Start Language School by Tymur Levitin
Global Learning. Personal Approach.