Tutoring: Back By Popular Demand

UPDATE:  I have to change the days to Thursdays.  Please make a note of it.

Since school has started here in Howard County, more than a few of my 11th graders have asked if I’m going to be offering free tutoring again this fall.  Originally I wasn’t planning on it, but I guess I don’t really have anything better to do anyway.  This will help me cut down on my TV watching too.

When I did this for a few months back last spring, I wasn’t sure if anyone would respond to it.  I imagined myself lazily flipping through a magazine while drinking an oversized cup of tea most Tuesdays.  But it turned out that not only did my guys show up, but once the other high-schoolers found out what I was doing, they wanted help too.  Some nights I’d be jumping from table to table, maybe helping someone with Chemistry, then proofreading an essay, then quizzing someone on their SAT words.  I even helped out a few college students who happened to be around.

I think the most surprising thing was that though many of them claimed to be “completely lost” in whatever subject they needed help with, it only actually took a few minutes and a couple of key concept corrections to get them back on track.  The most difficult ones to help were definitely ones who procrastinated or waited too long to get help because you just couldn’t learn three months of a subject in just one evening.

So before the school year gets too far along, I will again be offering free tutoring sessions at the Long Gate Barnes and Noble every Tuesday starting at 7:30PM and going until 10PM.  I’m only there for consultation.  I’m not going to do your work for you.  We may even do extra work just so that we know you get the concepts.  You’re not paying me, so I can do that.

So what’s my motivation?  I’m not sure.  My friends will tell you that I get a very weird enjoyment out of explaining things to people (just ask anyone in who went to Ledo’s pizza last Saturday after praise practice and had to sit through my explanation about a 23 dimensional universe).  I especially like it when people get a new understanding of things with my assistance.  I think I take after my father in that.  He was an engineer too.  I truly feel sorry for my future kids who will have school 24 hours a day and on weekends.  But hopefully they’ll let me rant, even if they’re not really listening, just to make me happy.

I’m actually looking forward to retirement, not because I’ll not be working, but because I hopefully will have enough saved to do things that may not be the most profitable, but I will enjoy more… like teaching part-time or writing… maybe both.  I just hope that my mind doesn’t deteriorate too much by then – even though some may say that they already see signs of it now – HA!