A few thoughts for students from an economics professor:

We know more than you, but this doesn’t mean we’re smarter. It just means we’re older. I’ve taught lots of students who are smarter than me, but I know a lot more about economics than they do because I’ve been studying it for about as long as they have been alive.

Some great advice I heard in grad school: work to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, or more experienced than you, or some combination of these. In short, work to be around people from whom you can learn. If you can’t be around them physically, you can accomplish this by reading often and widely.

If something is unclear, ask. Not only is a good question a good signal that will help you when it’s time to ask for letters of recommendation or when we’re being asked to recommend students for internships, jobs, scholarships, awards, special programs, and so on, you will be doing your classmates a solid because if you’re confused, you’re almost certainly not alone.

By all means, be curious *and* critical. It takes pretty thick skin to read end-of-semester evaluations.