More Difficulty

I thought our discussion Wednesday about difficult tutoring sessions was really enlightening, and I'd like to see you all continue the discussion here. Obviously, we all need to be diplomatic in these discussions, and so what I'd like to see you write about is what is frustrating about these sessions for you and what you have tried/plan to try/wish you could try to make them less frustrating.

My Struggles with Biomed Monsters and Other Such Silliness.

Luckily, so far I have not seen anything too difficult to deal with emotionally. However, some papers that I’ve read have been really boring, and at times quite gross. But they couldn't help it—they were biomed papers. And then there were a few monsters for business classes; you know, something about profit margins, estimates, etc.

I found that that those papers are hard to follow; usually because they are very specific and are intended for the audience to which I do not belong. But I also found that it is totally OK to ask questions about concepts. I had to do that on a number of occasions in order to understand the sentence if the student had punctuation questions, for example.

If the paper is boring, I have to keep myself aware of the fact, so I don’t slip into the mode of nodding and agreeing while my mind is off somewhere else. So far the most effective way of combating this tendency to disassociate has been reminding myself the amount of work that must have gone into writing a ten-page medical paper. It would be rude to disregard that, and I would feel awfully guilty if I had, so my guilt-avoiding tendencies keep me in line. It also helps to ask questions, because understanding the paper better naturally makes it easier to follow. And taking turns reading the paper helped too.

Now that I think about it, there were a couple of charged papers that I agreed with and was tempted to discuss the topic further with the like-minded individual next to me. And even though this is a situation opposite to what Dr. Rogers is asking for, it is still applicable, in a way. Because I really had to bite my tongue and remember that it’s not about me or my thoughts and feelings (believe it or not, but there are times when I actually feel that way), whether I agreed or disagreed.

Difficult subjects

I find that tutoring subjects that I agree with are very hard. It is hard for me to be subjective with heated subjects that I agree with. When I get assignments like this it is good practice for me to question what I believe to be the right side. To become objective I will try to play the devils advocate( or was that the devils devil or advocates advocate?)

I have found it valuable, when tutoring difficult subjects, to make it clear to the student that you are going to 'play' the devils advocate. I tell them, "I'm going to think like your oposition would. Basically I'm going to play the devils advocate. What would you say to someone who asked you...." I have found that using this technique allows the student to feel comfortable with the tutors questioning because questioning in this manner is impersonal. It is impersonal because you make it clear that it is the opposition that is making these questions and it is not the tutor who is making them. While doing this I like to explain how addressing the oppositions argument strengthens their paper. Hopefully, they will take your questioning as help.

Steering students thesis away from cleche topics such as gay marriage is bad, president clinton is a saint, etc... requires me to become interested in the topic. What I mean with this is that the tutor's job is to not agree or disagree with the student; rather the job is to make the student more curios in the subject. Making them interested will provoke them to ask harder questions than, "Topic A is good or bad."

It's all about the walls

I'm of the opinion that people choose whether or not they will be offended. Although some subjects more easily lead someone to take offense than others do. As writing tutors, it's not our place to judge the content of a paper, although we may not agree with it. Our only issues should be whether or not the paper works or sticks with the assignment. If an essay is so entrenched on one side of the issue that it doesn't argue the point effectively, we can address that.

All this is great to discuss from a hypothetical standpoint, but I don't know how I would react if a paper really pushed my buttons. Thankfully, I haven't had this experience yet. Surely, if a student came in with a paper defending rapists or child molestors, I'd have an issue with it. I liked Dr. Rogers suggestions of changing the focus of the paper slightly. However, I don't think it would be inappropriate to end a session if the tutor is feeling especially uncomfortable. In that instance, the benefit of the session would be minimal, and it would be fruitless to continue. As a rule, though, I think it's a good idea for tutors to take down the walls in their minds.

Overused, Please Diverge.

Yes, yes. The discussion and activity the other day was rather frustrating. Multiple subjects are continuously written about and given solutions. Stem cell research, gay marriage, and evolution are discussed so many times. Every single person has their own opinion, and discussing the same topics with the same arguments does nothing. So, it is great opening students’ minds to a different perspective on how to handle issues. One thing that Yulia and I were discussing is asking the student why the issue is so divided. Then take a neutral standpoint for a little while and see both sides of the perspective. I love what Jenny said about offense. A person can only take offense, and somebody should not be offended to hear that someone else has a different opinion. Students can use this advice to explain their argument and understand the other side, which will only strengthen their argument.

Let’s get into some specifics here. About a month or so ago I read a few papers on stay-at-home moms. Both students really did not look at the other side or even different situations that the issue applies to. They did not realize that there are situations when a mother absolutely needs to work or that being a stay-at-home mom does not make you lazy and less intelligent. I told them that they needed to take a neutral stance for a moment and write arguments to both sides of the story, and then they can run with their ideas. I should have asked them to look at effects and consequences of their positions, but I did not think of this at that time. In other words, questions like what effect has women in the workforce had on child obesity, or what has women in the workforce done to promote new ideas, technology, and the growth of the civilization would have made these students think in new terms. Bringing up specifics like these makes the students think instead of giving the same, everyday argument they always give.

Another suggestion is do not get emotionally involved with an issue during a tutoring session. Like we have learned, it is not your job to educate your tutee on your opinions. It is only your job to help theirs. By using "help" I do not mean that you have to agree. Of course there are ethical concerns here. Ask them questions of why they think the way the do and usually this conversation will lead them to their own ideas of how to strengthen the argument. Do not spend an entire session arguing with a student. This will do nothing. Again, ask them questions and divert their one way thinking into a two way thinking pattern. Have empathy, or put yourself into their perspective, and advise them to do the same.

Circles

I have not had many sessions that caused me a great deal of alarm when it came to subject matter, save that one instance where I thought that the student wasn’t defending her interpretation of Antigone very well. My main problem with that was that she brought the paper to me about an hour before she had to turn it in, and I was seeing some major weaknesses that I really could not help her fix because of time constraints. She sincerely wanted to improve to, which made it worse, and I’m sure that I would do the same thing, which made it worse (I think it should be worser, and worserer) still. I have had little topical trouble other than that, but in response to what has been talked about in class, I think that it would probably be harder for me to address a very coarse piece of fiction than a paper.

Then again maybe not.

A paper supporting hate would be difficult if they really believed in it- the biggest problem for me I think would be remaining objective and staying…..not hostile. Calm. There is a real question about whether it’s right or not to help someone write the best racist paper that they possibly can, my hope, my sincere hope, would be that when we started addressing the idea that the writer has to tackle their opposition’s best defense, they would come around, but in a worst case scenario I’m not sure what I would do. I can argue both ways on a lot of subjects, but if this was something that the student really felt passionate about then…It would be much easier if the student was a male who really believed that women were inferior, then I could just bring up the fact that he was asking for academic advice from one and inquire as to whether or not he would like another tutor, and since this is a “what if” situation, I’ll say that I would do it so smugly that he’d never want to look down at that paper again, which would probably get me fired under normal circumstances.

Five hundred words is not a sufficient length for an ethical discussion of this magnitude, and I don’t think that I could answer the question sufficiently for myself yet, even if I were allowed to continue. Like everything else in tutoring, this whole discussion is very situation based, and if I were to feel threatened by a student’s work, or see a serious threat to others, that would change my reaction entirely. Though another good question to add to the pile that we’ve made so far would be: How close is hatred to action? If you spend enough time loathing someone, does that ultimately lead to acts of violence, and if so, is helping a student write a more convincing racist paper leading them closer to this violence line? I do not think that this makes us responsible for their actions, necessarily, but supposing that they were raised in a home that supported hate and hate acts, is it our job as a peer to oppose that action? As a tutor, I think the answer would be no, it’s delving to much into the psychological realm that we’re not trained to handle, if there is cause for legitimate concern however, it is our job to report it.

centre de redaction oblige

One of my best friends, surrogate brother really, was a journalism major and had a great philosophy that's kind of similar to this topic. His motto was nothing is offensive till you take offense to it and to me this makes a crazy kind of sense. Which is funny because normally he was given to spout endless post-modernistic arguments that you could only roll your eyes at. It does take all types to make the world (and to become subject matter for student composition) and no one opinion is "right" because we all believe that what we do and how we act is "right". Or sometimes as close as circumstances will allow. I must confess that my experience is very limited with topics that seem to go out of the way to create emotionally charged sessions. For the most part, I've worked the regular run-of-the-mill subjects like responses to poems and research into Type 2 diabetes, which don't tend to cause too many struggles in morality. During those few sessions with charged topics I find it works really well to just step back from personal feelings, remember this isn't my paper and I'm not the student's instructor, and realize I have no more right to chastise the student for such beliefs then the student has to chastise me for mine. The session is purely a business arrangement and its best to keep it in an aloof corporate-like setup. However, I'm rather leery of the one paper that I'm sure to get sooner or later, the one that is sure to push buttons where, in any other set of circumstances, the panel is dead. The anti-evolution paper. This will be the real test of the "step back" approach and I rather hope it (and myself) come through on the right side of the ledger.