I would write more about apathy, but I just don't care enough.

Apathy in a student makes a tutoring session awkward and frustrating. I tutored a few students today who were required to come into the Writing Center by their professors. Some of the students were willing to accept the help were interested in ways they could improve their writing. Others only wanted someone to look at their paper, make some marks, and sign something to prove that someone from the Writing Center looked at their paper. I think these students were surprised to find out that they were in for a tutoring session. I felt like I was going to have to make these students participate, so I handed them a pencil and asked them to read the paper out loud. I made sure to tell them what I thought they did well with the paper in an attempt to make them feel good enough to get them to care more about it. I don’t know if this worked, but at least they read their own paper and knew if they had done something well. But I know they probably still didn’t care about their writing.
When I try to help an apathetic student, I can’t help but feel a little apathetic myself. I feel like if a student doesn’t care about their writing, why should I? I have enough trouble caring about my own homework. But still, I want everyone to do well or at least want to do well. I guess I just have a hard time overcoming apathy in a student. It’s draining to put most of the effort into the tutoring session because a student doesn’t care and wants to LEAVE. It’s different than when a student wants help, but is nervous to speak up. I guess I just want everyone to put their full effort into their writing and have a genuine interest in improving (I’m not even like that, so what am I thinking?).
I’m not sure exactly how to encourage someone to care about their writing. I know that I can remain enthusiastic about it and I can give them positive feedback, but I still feel like they’re going to leave not caring about it. I had a hard time with this in my previous tutoring job, and I don’t feel like I came up with any consistently effective solutions. If anyone comes up with ideas as we get more into the semester, let me know.


PS Is anyone here also on MYSPACE? If you are, post your url.