[Suzy]

In response to the whole thing about a 16 year old teaching class or whatever:

My Sensei often tells the Leadership Team (a group of us, mostly teens, who are learning to become instructors) that he started teaching as a green belt (4 or 5 ranks below black belt in our system) at the age of, I believe, 16. This was teaching adults who were not only older than him, but many of whom outranked him significantly. My Sensei says that had his teacher not thrown him into that he would not be the instructor that he is today...and IMO, he's an amazing teacher.

My point: If you think that you can't learn from someone who is a lower rank than you, or is younger than you, in my opinion you can learn from anyone. Learning in martial arts isn't just about learning the next move in a pattern or perfecting a front kick. Learning is about absorbing absolutely everything. Someone might ask a question that you had never thought of but once asked, you want to know the answer to.

I will reiterate: If you think that you can't learn from someone who is younger than you or a lower rank than you, you cannot learn from anyone.