04/11/2026
NASA chief asked the Artemis II crew to describe their mission in one word. Four astronauts. Four answers. All of them, somehow, said the same thing.
Humility.
Christina Koch, who holds the record for longest spaceflight by a woman, didn’t say “historic.” She said humility. She named Katherine Johnson. Dorothy Vaughan. The workers who put their hands on every valve of the spacecraft. “We definitely didn’t pass the record up here alone.”
Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to reach lunar orbit, said: “Right away, you are humbled. The fact that four of us get to be out here just brings you to your knees.”
Victor Glover, looking back at Earth from 252,000 miles away, said: “You look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us.”
These are not people who have nothing to be proud of. These are people who chose humility because of what they know, not in spite of it.
In educational psychology, we talk a lot about expertise. About knowledge. About competence.
But the most effective teachers, coaches, and learners share this one thing: they never stopped being students first.
Humility isn’t the absence of confidence. It’s knowing that what you carry was built by others. That the person in front of you, your student, your colleague, your child, deserves your clearest, most accessible self. Not your credentials. Not your jargon.
You.
What would it look like if we brought a little more humility into our classrooms this week?
🌕 Welcome home, Artemis II. Thank you for the lesson.
📷 NASA astronaut Victor Glover during the Artemis II lunar flyby, April 6, 2026. Photo credit: NASA (art002e016204)