Too bad, I didn’t learn algebra!

Written by Nyoki Morris.

I failed Algebra the very first time I took it. That happened way back in high school, but from the experience, I swore off math. It was during my freshman year, and the teacher for that class was just not approachable. One could even say the teacher was mean. Once, when I summoned up the courage to ask for help, I was rejected and told to “go sit down.” I was dejected, for that matter. Since it happened so long ago, I can’t remember if it was first or second semester, or exactly what aspect of algebra was being taught. For sure, I felt dumb, backwards, and clueless, as if nobody could set me straight because apparently, I had asked a very stupid question if the teacher wasn’t willing to address it. It’s not that I didn’t understand most algebraic concepts; even now, some thirty years later, I can figure out FOIL type problems, remember Distributive Property, and understand the Order of Operations. My biggest problem, even today, is understanding what the heck I’m supposed to do with the numbers because there are so many operations. If I’m looking at f(x)= x + 1, I know its an F of X problem, but I have no idea what it means or what’s supposed to happen next. Or, a test question may ask for some type of ratio, but the answer choices resemble a fraction. WTF??? I don’t remember learning how or why the two are even related!

     Now, I’m sure my parents had to know I was struggling, but for all I knew, they probably assumed it was the teacher’s job to educate me. A tutor might have helped, but it was never a conversation.

     Ironically enough, I eventually became a teacher, and NO; Math is not my subject area. The thing is, students struggle with a variety of academic deficiencies, whether in math or other subject areas. Now, granted, we’re all trained educators who pretty much know the content, but there’s a teacher out there somewhere who wasn’t willing to help me understand, so I KNOW other students have the same problem I had years ago. I’ve come across students who were lacking skills in reading accuracy and comprehension by the time they were at the high school level. I’m alarmed at how any learner could get all the way up to 11^th grade, and neither identify a context clue nor find a definition within a sentence. Un-frickin’-believable, especially when you consider how a lot of students don’t really know they want to go to college until the subject comes up during junior or senior year. I started wondering what was taught (or not…) during early elementary years. I mean, I didn’t teach English or Language Arts either, so I didn’t know the first thing about how to fix student deficits in those areas at the time, but I wanted to know if English teachers in high schools actually noticed or even addressed language, grammar, and comprehension concerns. I cringe when I hear a student ask, “what time it is?” because I can tell they aren’t prepared to communicate effectively. And if teachers inside the schools can’t reach the ones who show academic deficiencies, tutored learning just might suffice as a remedy.

     In academia, the benefits of tutoring are many, and not to be taken for granted. Individualized learning lessens distractions and provides a needs-based focus on instruction. When students are at school, they usually make friends in their classes. Since being social is part of being a teenager, students spend a lot of their time talking rather than focusing on the content presented by their teachers. It’s nearly impossible to listen when they’re talking, so they miss out on the meaning of complicated vocabulary terms, overlook important details, and negate a step or two from those multi-step algebraic equations. Not to mention the level of information overload students have to resolve due to the high rigor and number of classes they take in a single day. With a tutor, distractions are mitigated by individualized interactions and customized lessons that are geared towards what the learner actually needs.

     Another issue is that students don’t always see the need for much of what they are taught at school and tend to express poor attitudes toward education. Through tutoring programs, learning becomes less daunting. Since the setting is one-on-one, they are more likely to ask questions if they don’t understand something. This, in turn, increases their understanding of the subject matter. Tutors supplement what students’ teachers already covered, so class time will be less frustrating as a result.

     Improved academic performance is another benefit of tutoring. As already stated, tutors meet with students individually; since it’s just the one child with a tutoring coach, the child will be more likely to actively participate in learning by asking questions and taking chances they wouldn’t normally take because they don’t want to risk being embarrassed in front of their peers. The student and tutor can get into a groove where the student actually grows comfortable with sparring with educational content. The skill of how to learn carries over into the classroom and is evidenced by higher performance on assignments and tests. Overall, tutored students show an increase in self-esteem.