Tutor enlightened by the tutored

Sue Clark

I got a call last week from the mother of a student at Corona del Mar

High School.

She had saved my ad from last summer’s Daily Pilot, in which I

offered “tutoring for the procrastinating teen.” I was impressed

she’d saved it, yet took the opportunity to tease her about

procrastinating. Luckily, she laughed. She sounded as though she had

respect for her children, all of whom had different temperaments and

abilities. I love that in a parent and assumed the tutoring would go

well if she had that attitude.

Truth be told, I’d forgotten all about that tutoring endeavor.

This summer, I had done some substitute work the last week of June at

University High in Irvine, teaching the first week of an SAT prep

class. The teacher had unexpectedly needed a few days off, and I had

been a last-minute pinch hitter. We had a blast that week. The kids

had paid a hefty fee and were motivated, if not thrilled. I was able

to add some fun, and we worked through the writing section of the SAT

book. I missed them.

I hadn’t run the ad in the Pilot this summer, because in between

moving to my beloved condo in Costa Mesa and trying to make the patio

a Rogers Garden showplace on Home Depot funding, I hadn’t thought of

it. My recent Minnesota trip had further complicated things.

After ascertaining that the student, as well as the mom, was OK

with tutoring, I agreed to meet with them on Monday. I’m looking

forward to it. I miss being around teens in the summer, and my job

with this student will be to help with writing skills, something I

enjoy doing.

I’ve tutored several local kids, but one that I will never forget

was a pregnant 15-year-old, Alicia (not her real name). My district

recruited me to work with her after she was diagnosed with pregnancy

complications and placed on homeschooling status.

Alicia was obviously in for a hard life. (Most teen girls I’ve

worked with have opted to keep their baby). Her goal was to continue

her education while being a young mother. She had had a lackluster

academic career up to that point, but the one-on-one teaching proved

ideal for her. This young girl was a natural student. The Socratic

Method is a far cry from a class of 35, and Alicia immediately began

to blossom. She loved knowledge and absorbed it like a sponge.

We would read the newspaper together each time we finished her

lessons. I had to force her at first to read aloud and added insult

to injury by making her underline any word she didn’t know. That

summer, there were many articles on the war in Iraq. One of them that

she opted to read aloud was about people protesting the U.S.

involvement in Iraq. As she read, she looked puzzled.

“You mean people are against it?” she said, as she underlined

escalating, and wrote it in her notebook.

“Some are, and some support it,” I said.

“Why would anyone not want us to be there?”

“You’d better read more on both sides,” was the studied answer I

gave her.

The next time we met, she said, “I talked to my dad about the

protesters.” (Uh oh, I thought; he’ll think I was putting ideas in

her head).

“He and I had this, like, great discussion about it.”

This was the kind of student teachers would kill for, but in a

crowded classroom, no one had noticed her intellectual curiosity.

As her pregnancy progressed, and her belly enlarged, I had her

read Ibsen’s “A Doll House.” This was a simplified version of the

story of Nora, a housewife who lived in a society where women were

treated like little children by their husbands. In it, Nora rebels

and commits the unthinkable act of trying to make her own life within

a restrictive marriage.

As we read the actors’ lines together, Alicia’s face, round from

pregnancy, grew shocked. “How could he call her his little doll?” she

asked. “That’s so totally a put-down. It’s like she’s his property!”

“Do you think he saw it as a put-down?” I asked.

“Well, maybe not. But it’s horrible. I would never let a guy treat

me like that.”

I believed her. Alicia would smack a boy down before she let him

treat her badly. I thought about her own looming challenge of teen

motherhood and resolved to help her when she was ready to get

financial aid for college. The burden of having a child paled beside

her intellectual curiosity.

I still get notes from Alicia, who is raising her toddler with the

help of a large family and the experience of caring for a younger

sister from birth. She’s calmer about it than I was as a young mother

with little support and a crying baby.

I don’t think my new student will have these problems. First of

all, he has not fathered any kids, and from all reports, he has

self-esteem. Second, his mom can afford tutoring, so he won’t have a

life of financial struggle while attending college. His future looks

optimistic.

I know I can give him some organizational tools for writing. I

hope I transmit some of the fun I have with writing. And I can tell

from my own burst of energy, it’s almost time for me to get back to

school.

* SUE CLARK is a Costa Mesa resident and a high school guidance

counselor at Creekside High School in Irvine.