Today saw me having my first ever tuition stint; incidentally and ironically, it was also the last, for this student at least. Oh in case you’re wondering, I was sacked right after the tuition through the person who referred me.
I always think of myself as a perfectionist when it comes to teaching. I spend an obscene amount of time (by typical student-tutor’s standards) on the lesson preparation beforehand. It was like this when I attempted to help Sharon with her Computing; it was like this when I helped my cousin with her English; and it is the same exact effort that I’ve put in for this student.
I went ahead to purchase three rather specific guidebooks (being combined sciences instead of the pure ones) and the TYS (five year series, to be more exact) yesterday to prepare for the lesson. I studied the guide, I wrote some notes, I did some questions and picked some for her.
By the time I finished going through the notes on Arithmetic with her, I could sense bewilderment in her.
“But these are Sec 2 stuff right,” she half exclaimed.
“Yes, they are what you’ve learnt in lower secondary, but you’ll still be tested on arithmetics,” I explained while flipping the 19-pages worth of the supposedly “Secondary 2” questions in the past five years of ‘O’ Levels.
Reluctantly, she did 3 Paper One questions which took her quite a bit of time. When she have finished, I noticed half of them was not attempted and the rest was largely wrong. I had initially thought that she might have been pretty good with her maths hence her reluctance to revise on a ‘Sec 2’ topic.
I was pretty freaked before the lesson because I kept thinking what to do after we are done with arithmetics. But an hour and a half later, she was still struggling with the concepts of the three questions. I had to revise on how to do the working for division of decimals, highest common factors, lowest common multiples and significant figures. She went out to refill her water but I knew she was also going to tell her mum something. The moment she stepped out, I thought I heard her mumbled ‘Shit’ under her breath.
“Shit,” I thought to myself. Did I do something so wrong? Well, when she came back to finish her last 30 minutes of lesson, I gave her similar questions to reinforce her knowledge. She still had problems getting them right at first go, but I thought it was better than the first three.
When the tuition had finally ended, I went outside and spoke with the mother before leaving. The mother told me that her daughter is confused by my teaching and that she’ll “see how” for the next lesson. So yes, I am right, she did tell her mum something. But on the other hand, I thought both of us got more warmed up during the last 30 mins and she might change her mind.
Well, yes, she did told her mum something after I left. The mother called up the person who referred me and told him that I should not come for the next lesson. The mother says that I was teaching Secondary 2 work which was irrelevant.
So, that was 2 hours of work that she did not believe in. I felt sad, but not really for myself, but more for her. Why live in self-delusions? If it’s really Secondary 2 work and that she doesn’t need any revision, why did she had problems with them? I felt sad, I took thrice to help Sharon with her computing and didn’t really manage to help my cousin with her English. I felt sad, because I felt I could help her, but I am no longer given the chance to. Do I really make such a bad teacher?
We have come pretty far from our parents’ stories about terrifying teachers who hammer their students with their fists when they misbehave. These days, students choose their teachers. They embarass, they tease, they irk, they provoke teachers that they do not like. What choice did our parents had when they had “bad” teachers? Not much.
I’m not saying that we should accept 2nd-grade teachers. But have we become less tolerant in a world of instant gratification? A person came to mind as thoughts ran through. I remember a Physics tutor back in JC whom practically no one would like to have as their tutor. I was told that he was really dedicated to his task and I truly believe so. Apparently, he just couldn’t manage to get his ideas through effectively to his students. A pity though, he’s no longer around.
I was also told by my “cleverer” peers in RI/RJ that teachers who are “incompetent” are readily challenged and humiliated in class. Have the society, in the blind pursuit of efficacy, lose some sense of their humanity as well?
About a month ago, a long-lost friend contacted me one evening for a chat. It was rather heartwarming to know that he still remembered me and took the initiative to contact me. We chatted for almost half an hour before he suggested that we meet up some time, to which I readily agreed, of course. The next time we chatted, he suggested that we should meet up at Raffles Place. Suddenly, the seemingly innocent conversation did not seem too innocent after all.
No person in the sane mind would want to catch up with your old friends at Raffles Place unless they’re trying to convince you to buy something. This chap is good, so good that I didn’t suspect anything at all during our first conversation. Or was I just too naive? I told him firmly that I’m not interested to buy anything, to which he readily defended that he wasn’t going to sell me anything and that what I’ve said had hurt him. Well, it seems that he has polished his sales pitch (albeit in disguise) so well that your average person would relent and fall for it. But I’ve heard all too much about people around me being whisked into seemingly posh offices in Raffles Place by their friends, only to be cornered by alot of sales person to convince you to buy something you do not really need.
“No”, I insisted. “I’m really glad that you contacted me and I’d be more than happy to meet you for a cup of coffee anywhere but Raffles Place.”
“Ok ok, I will call you again to arrange next time,” he promised but still hasn’t fulfiled.
It hurts even more to know that he had lied to me that he was at his friend’s place when he’s at his office in Raffles Place when he made those phone calls. It didn’t make sense when there were people singing birthday song in the background at his “friend’s place” while he was chatting away with someone else that he had not contacted for two years. It all came to light when he mentioned “Raffles Place”.
It seems that such MLM companies are bringing out the worst of many so-called friends. I don’t know why, but I would never be able to call up my friends to convince them to borrow exorbitant sums of money to purchase something that they really have no need for. Sharon just told me that one of our classmate was recently scammed $800 after much pressure from four of her friends. That classmate was definitely nowhere near well-to-do and she had to lie that her family is in dire need of money to about 10 of her friends to borrow that sum.
Perhaps you may think that she’s silly. Yes, I think she’s silly too. But I also know how much pressure these “friends” of yours can exert on you once you step into their offices. It takes much courage to decline their offer firmly and to walk out of that office. Being the blur and gullible one, it was easy to pressurise her into buying the products.
It was a painful lesson for her financially and a painful one for me emotionally, but at least we got to know our “friends” better.
Part 1: Unfortunately, that’s the sad reality of teaching.. The definition of a good teacher varies and often, its the teachers who drill the basics and make sure you understand the concepts that are really “good” in that they benefit your studies. But the education system does not allow for such luxury. The syllabus is rigorous and the timetables are packed so much so that its really touch-and-go during lessons. Theoratically, you are “taught” once, given one chance to “clarify” during assignments and tested during “tests” and finally its the exams. Most people miss out on the first 2 and flunk the tests coz they didn’t even complete the first two steps, what more to do well in exams? Then they hire tuition teachers thinking that it’ll create a miracle in the last strech. Yet when they hire you, they don’t understand the value of what you’re trying to teach them, to them its just, I want to pass my exams and move on.
So as an educator, you are now faced with a dilemma. Do you want to just teach the typical, “expected” kind of standard questions just to hopefully let the student pass, or do you want the person to fully understand the entire concept, to grasp the basics, such that given any type of question that comes out (especially the non-standard, application type qtn), they are able to deliberate, think through and come up with a soln? I guess unfortunately it lies alot in the attitude of the student, the desire to learn and to truly be educated. Certain people just don’t really care, they don’t see the importance of it and probably never will till they grow older. So for them, you can try to change their mindset, but as a tuition teacher whom they can just sack if they’re unhappy, I guess the better option is just to help them “pass”. That’s probably the lesser evil. Its disappointing, but that’s life I guess…
Haha, so I guess for your case its kinda sad, coz the parent doesn’t understand the importance of basics too and got influenced by the child too easily. Tuition teacher unable to help child produce better results, is it the teacher’s fault or the student’s ignorance?
Part II: Welcome to the world of MLM… Sianz, hate these things. I got a friend call me up and suddenly ask me about the same things. Arranged to meet raffles place too. Kept saying its a good way to earn money without doing anything. MLM immediately came into my mind. Urgh. Rejected him a few times b4 he stopped bugging me.. Met another of my friend on the train, he was happily into MLM, wearing a suit and saying that he’s earning stable now from it. Says that the head of the organisation is damn smart and he’s proud to be in it. Money you may get, but a satisfaction and clear conscience in life? Maybe not.. Damn them. lol.
I suppose i’m luckier in the teaching aspect when compared to you. However, i thought the problem lies more towards communication then the preferences for grades. If i were you, i certainly would not have prepared that much (though i didn’t feel it was a bad thing at all. I’m actually proud of you). Instead, i would approach the first lesson as a examination of the student’s standing and capabilities. I do not worry abouf filling out the entire 2hours and i doubt rational parents would want a solid content packed 2 hours session. It’s simply not sustainable and absolutely not beneficial to the student.
By feeling out the student’s strengths and weaknesses, i could better tailor the next tution for the kid. In anycase that i face something similar to you, i would at least take the opportunity to clarify the “confusing” teaching part to the mother. “auntie, your daughter has very poor foundations in her sec 2 work and unless i polish up her basics, i don’t think i can progress much into her sec 3 work. blah blah blah, for example i gave her three questions from the TYS used for O levels and yet she had problems handling them…” or something along those lines.
I’m pretty blessed in this sense and thus far, i only have problems with student’s attendance and commitment to their work. I don’t think you’re a bad teacher, well i did get the website up right? =) thanks for all your help thus far and do not give up because of this small set back!
eh, i heard weiming, the cathigh one, dabbling in mlm now too… he contacted me for nth, but backed off when i said i got a job already