Tutoring experience - Part 2

 I recently started tutoring a kid and I have to say that while it is rewarding and delightful to be imparting knowledge to the kid, it is also very frustrating and trying my patience. 

I met a retired school principal online and were discussing teaching experiences. He told me that he never taught kids who were not interested in studying. He explained that some kids while they may have the intelligence to study and understand, lack the interest to study. Such kids would not pay attention no matter what you do. You can try imparting knowledge with physical models, videos that are educational and entertaining but they would just watch it for the entertainment but would not show the slightest interest to study or learn. He further explained that one of the reasons maybe that the parents do not discipline their kids. They find that the kid is not doing well in school, hire a part time tutor and expect the tutor to ensure the kid does the schoolwork and pass on the responsibility of education to the tutor. 

Unfortunately, the kid I tutor fell into this exact category. She is intelligence and capable of understanding. However, she has not been disciplined to study or pay any kind of attention to studies by her parents. As a result, she would not pay attention to subjects she thought was boring, constantly questioned the need for education and hard work, would only read subjects that she found easy and never wrote or attempt to solve math problems which she thought was hard. 

It is very frustrating to teach such kids. Her father tried to teach her but gave up when she would not listen to him. She would wake up on time for school, but would sleep until 11 am during the weekends, would not study and play or watch tv the entire weekend. Her mom tried to teach her while doing all the household chores and working a full time job. Her dad called me for tutoring and explained that he wanted to hire a tutor to see if the kid would study and listen to a person who is not part of their family. 

Over the course of months, I have seen reasonable progress with the kid who managed to read when she could not read a single sentence prior to tutoring. I was very pleased to be ale to help the kid with reading and solving math problems. I have tried to make her learning experience enjoyable by including videos and visual aids. I keep changing my mode of teaching and coming up with different solutions to keep her engaged and adjust my methods to suit the attention span of the kid. 

It has been an interesting journey and I have learned a lot about myself during this journey. My patience has improved, I am getting better at handling situations when the kid gets disinterested and obstinate, coming up with solutions to gain the attention and methods to improve the reading and comprehensive skills of the kid. I would say that while teaching is a rewarding experience, it is important that the kid is interested in gaining knowledge and that would make it an enjoyable experience for both the tutor and the kid.