And I fail

So I was giving this private lesson to a violin student who because of his schedule, cannot join our orchestra class. He promises me that he still wants to play and that he will promise to practice. This is his third year playing.

I'm sitting there listening to him, and he clearly wasn't playing the excerpt right.

"What kind of notes are those in the second measure?"

"Quarter note?"

"No, those are not quarter notes"

"Uhh..."

"They're half notes, ____"

"So now that I've told you that they are half notes, how many beats does a half note get?"

"Uh, a half a beat?"

::headdeskrepeat::

Seriously? I fail as a teacher.

I could say in my defense that he's border line special needs, but really, I fail.