Smart Students

A few days ago, Cynthia asked an excellent question:

What if we ever have a student that comes in who is so far above our level of knowledge and expertise? I’d like to think that even with my pithy little brain I could make intelligent suggestions on the writing. Just a few days ago I had a tutee that was working on some science paper and I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what was going on. I, of course, made sure the thesis matched the conclusion and all those other things we’re supposed to do, but I felt like a blubbering idiot by the time we made it through the paper.

What do you all think?