My real problem with the Socratic method is that it only works when your recipient is generally in a relaxed environment which promotes an inquisitive, low-stak

My real problem with the Socratic method is that it only works when your recipient is generally in a relaxed environment which promotes an inquisitive, low-stakes interaction, as opposed to being under stress or pressure to understand. It fails spectacularly when by the 3rd "What's a different way to write 'Ten'" the student starts huffing and puffing in frustration for you to move on and stop wasting their time with silly questions, (blanking out mentally if you do continue with the questions anyway), only for them to give up for 'not getting it' once you get to the 'real' stuff. In other words, they feel too pressed with time to allow themselves to be patient and learn all the relevant material, but they're too frustrated from not being able to piece things together once they've forced themselves to skip all the important pieces out of perceived pragmatism. It's a frustrating exercise for both teacher and learner. So sometimes the best thing to do is match the student's needs and style, and swallow the fact that you need to do things backwards for a bit, until they manage to get to the desired point their way, and that this is going to take a while.