A number of years ago, a 7th grade math student of mine was clearly bothered by his inability to keep up with the other students on a series of self-checking practice activities I had designed. Pulling him aside, I told him I was only requiring him to do his best, and that I wasn’t comparing him to the other students at all. Locking eyes with him, I also whispered that “Slow and careful is a 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 thing in math.” This seemed to put him at ease, and he worked at his own pace for the rest of that year, frequently completing class assignments on his own time at home to keep from missing anything. Several years later, a high school teacher in my district had each of her students send a note to a former teacher who had inspired them as part of a writing project, and he wrote to me, saying “Thanks for letting me work slowly that year. That was the first time I ever learned math.” Math that moves too fast is no math at all.