As you say some are thrown in over their heads. First day i sat and told them stories and how i got into teaching off a building site. No mathematics. And how education was important mostly because it kept more doors open. And how it was so much fun to be learning. Then i had them stand on their chairs. At the end of my term of teaching a couple of teachers had complained about too much noise from my room, but we all got away with it. And the kids enjoyed having me, a big part of the scene.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”