How I Stopped Hating Teaching

How I Stopped Hating Teaching

In sixth grade, I officially ‘tutored’ someone for the first time. The session was anything but professional, considering that twelve year old me didn’t particularly enjoy teaching math nor found any appeal in instructing an eight year old on how to memorize his times tables. Even worse, the child was showing very little progress in the thirty minutes we had. We were both uninterested, practically dead to the world, and although it’s a shame to say it, I only volunteered to help for service hours. It was on that day, after a mere three problems my tutee and completed that I decided to never tutor again.

It turns out that I was very wrong. Fast forwarding to high school, there was a sudden appeal to tutoring English, the one subject that was close to my heart. The WC at West Springfield was a little bit of a mystery to me before a friend talked about tutoring as an actual class. The reason why I was convinced to take Advanced Composition in the first place is still blurry to me, but I knew it at least related to English and I should give it a try.

Since my very first session in the WC, which went well despite my worries that I would surely mess up and never recover, I learned several lessons through tutoring.  I got over my shy nature and habit of never talking to a stranger unless they approach me first. In the WC, the tutor is usually the one who engages in a conversation, whether it is a random blurb of an introduction, or ice breaker questions from the cover sheet. Through talking, I saw the true responsibility of a tutor, giving suggestions and feedback on a student’s paper, which pushed me to talk more than usual to someone I met for the first time. And then, I learned the feeling of satisfaction from helping someone in need.

Although it doesn’t happen often, there are occasions when a tutee would give positive feedback that lets me know I’m doing well, and (big shocker) actually helping. One time, a student thanked me a total of five times (yes, I counted) before leaving the room with a genuine smile on her face. Although it may seem like a small and irrelevant thing, the compliment was a relief to me and made me feel more confident and qualified to actually teach. This was a drastic change from before, when I was unsure if I could help anybody at all.

Lastly, the WC helped me with something bigger, probably the biggest ironic turn around in my life. After much deliberation, I’m adding ‘teacher’ to one of my possible future career paths. With the positive atmosphere of the WC, my improvement in teaching, and most importantly, the relief and gratitude that tutees wear on their faces after sessions, I’ve gained a life skill that I won’t be forgetting any time soon. And maybe someday, if I do end up teaching kids who also have to tutor for service hours, there might be a promising young tutor out there who hated teaching, just like me, all those years ago.    

Any questions on West Springfield’s WC or tutoring in general? Contact me.