Asking a Teen, “How Old is Too Old?”

My students cannot guess my age.

I was reading a funny blog from a teacher named John Egelkrout about students asking his age and it made me chuckle thinking about my recent experience on this matter in my own classroom.

It is amazing how similar his story was to what happens in my classroom. I guess kids are more alike than different wherever you go. You can find his blog here:

In my experience, students are not shy about asking the question that so many adults bend over backwards not to bring up.

I am 54, by the way, and I first started teaching high school math nearly twenty-five years ago.

“How old are you, anyway?” I get in almost every class, every year.

This happened just the other day in my Geometry class.

I am a math teacher, so I am not going to just give them the answer.

“What do you think?” I asked in response to their question.

But, like most questions involving numerical answers that I ask them, I was met with silence and blank stares.

After a little awkward silence (we call that wait time in the industry), one bold kid popped up with an estimation that was way too high.

“73,” he shouted from the back of the room.

“Are you serious?” I asked him, acting appalled.

It must be my prematurely gray hair.

“Are you in your 30s?” a polite girl from the front of the room asked. I don’t think she really thought that. She was just being nice and felt bad for me.

“Not for awhile now,” I said, “I will give you some hints. I was born before Nixon was president but after the Beatles first played on Ed Sullivan.”

I thought that would give it away.

Someone in the back said, “Wow, that is old!”

Predictably, someone else asked, “Who is Ed Sullivan?”

Another jokester in the back said, “Who are the Beatles?”

“Was Nixon president in the 80s?” someone asked seriously.

Exasperated, I said to the class, “So, what’s your guess?”

“46?” someone offered.

They were getting closer. I simply shook my head. But since I was a math teacher I added, “I am a multiple of 9.”

“50,” the kid who originally guessed 73 offered. No wonder he sat in the back of the room.

I shook my head and sat down at my desk as they threw numbers at me hoping something would stick.

“54 is 9 times 6,” one of my “A” students gave me the right answer excitedly.

“Bingo,” I said loudly, quieting the class.

“But you look so old?” the kid in the back of the room added. He was really enjoying this.

“That is what 20 years in public education will do to a man. I didn’t have gray hair until I started teaching you kids,” I jokingly explained but added seriously, “Now, lets get back to our assignment.”

The class got quiet. Some returned to the math worksheet that they had been working on. Most, got out their phones and started scrolling.

Many had probably already forgotten my age or didn’t really care anymore.

Where has the 25 years gone?

When I first became a teacher, I wore a tie and slacks every day to distinguish myself from the students. I was so young and looked a lot like them.

I don’t have to worry about that anymore and most days you will find me in jeans and a collared shirt.

I had my first, “Boy, I have been doing this for a long time” moment about five years ago when, during parent conferences, I discovered that the parent sitting at the table with their child was a former student of mine.

In the last five years, that has probably happened a half dozen more times.

I look around at my colleagues and I do realize that I am one of the older members of the staff and that there are only a couple of people in the building that were here when I first started teaching.

The most common question I get from staff members I don’t see very often is about when I get to retire.

I’ll admit, I have thought about that as many of my friends and coworkers have retired over the years.

I probably have another 6 years in me.

But, I am in no hurry. I still love my job and enjoy the students.

And, I think they still need me. As long as they do not know what a multiple of nine is, I have work to do. I will retire when they can guess my age.

Here are some other experiences I’ve had as a teacher: