Frustrations of a Tutor

What is a baby turkey called? How about the baby swan? And a baby ant? Really now!!!!! How about, create a gameboard using the circulatory system...Yikes! I hope you never see any of these homeworks in your child's diary.

I am first and foremost a teacher and i understand what it feels like to want to be creative, maximize use of each child's multiple intelligence and be faithful to the term progressive education, BUT there is a limit as to what a child can do at a particular age. I really don't believe that kids do difficult homeworks on their own or that they even contibute to doing any of it at all. Just because everything is a click away doesn't mean a child does the homework.....Everything is just a click away for the parent, which makes doing the homework of their child a much easier task.

Don't get me wrong, i get it. I really do. The teacher wants to be creative, the parents want a near perfect, if not totally perfect score, and the tutor suffers. It's unfair anyway you look at it, especially for the child who should be the one learning, right?

I have been teaching for almost nine years now (big school and small school combined) and I am proud to say that i have never given a homework or project which i thought was too difficult for my students, maybe projects that required commitment, yes but not impossible to do. Let me share with you that instance.....When I was a CLE teacher several years ago, i found out that a couple of mommies, of my then grade one students (who are now first year girls...OMG! It says a lot about my age!), did the project of their kids. Here's a little backgrounder....all CLE teachers were asked by the department to give an alternative trimestral exam. So in lieu of a test, we had to give a project which was to be done over the holidays. I forget now the whole theme we used, but the project i assigned was a three-part project: 1) Pray the rosary everyday. The only catch is, they had to have a proof (according to my coord)....as in a photo. I thought it made the praying fake, but i needed a picture so that was that. 2) Write a daily journal for the coarse of the holiday and 3) Do something good for the poor. It should have been an easy project since Christmas is a time for giving right, boy was i wrong! Come January, perfectly made projects as in type written ones were submitted to me. At that point i knew already that a number of the students did not do their projects. Can a grade 1 kid really type a 2-week journal? And the kids themselves squealed on their parents during our discussion in class. I asked simple questions like, Did you really pray the rosary everyday? One of my super honest kids even raised her hand and volunteered the information " No, my mommy said pose for the picture and kneel down." Come on! Then when i asked if they wrote on the journal everyday during the whole vacation, another kid said "We only did all the days last night!" There were even a couple of kids who didn't do any activity with the needy because, according to the parents, it was weird that the kids were being graded for it, so they didn't do it. Duh! Getting a grade for the praying and the giving made it seem superficial, i know, but the kids have to start somewhere...and it's not as if the rubric includes length of praying time or amount given to the poor. They already get a perfect score for accomplishing the task, the grade just varied according to neatness and creativity of presentation of the actual written report.

It was a stressful time because i received so many written complaints and personal visits from parents and i got called to the office of the coordinator so many times to defend my grades..... which gives you an idea that, of course i flunked those kids. How could i not?! My coordinator just said that for as long as i can defend the grades i gave she would approve my grades. SO a lot of kids got low grades meaning from a 97 it became an 85 during the 2nd term...that type of thing.

Lessons were learned, thanks to that CLE project....Teachers, make sure you give assignments/projects which the kids can do THEMSELVES; Tutors, don't do everything for the kids, especially projects. Teachers are not dumb. They will know tight away if it was done by an adult; Mommies & Daddies, let your kids do their own work. Allow them to make mistakes. Let them color everything pink if they want to and don't be too OC with their school work. A high grade earned the easy way means nothing. It has no value.