Srinagar, Aug. 3 -- My own education had been about stability, clarity, and fixed outcomes. Couplets and codes sounded like contradiction.

The student looked at me, amused and exhausted, and said, "Both are ways I make sense of chaos."

And with that, she taught me the first of many lessons I would learn from Gen Z.

I'm part of a generation that inherited struggle and handed down expectation. Growing up in the tumultuous region of Jammu and Kashmir, we were told that a good life meant a steady job, a stable family, and a name that stayed out of the news.

We didn't ask for more, and didn't risk too much. We didn't, in many ways, know how.

Now I teach Gen Z students from across the globe - South Asians, Africans, Arabs, Uzbeks, Chinese ...