In addition to providing structure and continuing skills development during the COVID 19 outbreak, a regularly scheduled tutor can also serve as a wonderful pressure-relieving gift to your student and family. A tutor is just like an athletic coach or private music teacher—they provide one-on-one coaching for academic subjects and skills. People engage tutors for a variety of reasons: students may have a complex learning profile, difficulty with time management and other executive functions, or anxiety and perfectionism about schoolwork to the extent that it has begun to cause problems in other areas of their lives. Sometimes people work with a tutor to excel, to sharpen their skills and develop their talents further. Here are just a few of the benefits of engaging a tutor:
1. Take the PRESSURE OFF the parent-child relationship
Imagine not having to nag and pester. Let someone else help them with time management.
2. The student gets a chance to ask ALL of their questions
Even if they think their questions are stupid (they’re not) and are afraid to ask them in front of the class, they can ask their tutor and clear up that confusion.
3. Unlike teachers who manage a classroom full of kids and have limited office hours, tutors have the luxury of TIME with individual students
A tutor has the time to spend finding that best word choice, explaining grammar and comma rules in detail, developing their ideas aloud, helping them structure the paper, developing the thesis statement, interpreting the texts, etc—all in a one-on-one setting, the best possible learning practice for many kinds of minds
4. Relationships are key to learning and a tutor can be an important COACH and MENTOR to a young person
In a one-on-one setting, students have access to an adult who can serve as a sounding board for the stressors of school.
5. When developing ideas for a writing piece, a tutor can help a student GET THERE FASTER
Together, we can exit the land of confusion more quickly and straighten the arrow of the argument
6. Get TIPS, TRICKS, and SHORTCUTS for technology, research strategies, reading skills, writing tips
A good tutor will share their strategies with their students and inspire students to find and share their own time-saving techniques
7. Get an EDGE
Whether it’s college application support (provided ethically), prepping for finals or standardized tests, carefully editing and proofreading that big paper, or any other high-stakes academic task, a tutor can help you get an edge not only on the competition but also (and more importantly) on your own best practices as a student.
