Frustration setting in...

Yes, Yes, YES! I am so frustrated. The last maybe three people I have tutored seem to be so uninvolved with what is going on during the tutoring session. I hate those blank stares I get. Trust me your sentence sucks.

There, now I feel better. Now I dealt with the issue by trying to give extra evidence and keep reiterating my point on why something might need to change in a paper. I always try to remind the student that it is their paper and if they are uncomfortable with a change, to not go through with it. I am really tring to be kind, but I don’t understand why someone would come in here and then not want to change a thing. Oh wait, I do know. They are all students that were forced to come in to the writing center. I actually want to try that whole empathetic method, but the students never tell me they were forced to come in here till the end of the session. Sorry, I can’t pick them out yet. I just hate their attitude. The students who are forced to come in are all so defensive about their writing. And guess what; a lot of them did need help. I really don’t understand it. Its like everyone coming out of 1010 has only learned one way to write a sentence and that’s all they use. Again, and again; same sentence structure. That’s what I call tax dollars at work. Writing is not that difficult. If you sit down and spend some time with what you are writing and read the paper out loud, you can’t go to wrong. So why does everyone I am tutoring seem so…limited? I sound so mean, but it is how I feel. These students are not stupid, maybe they really are just intimidated by wrinting and because of that they don’t try as hard. I think it is so dense for someone to think they won’t need English. You need it more than math. At least with math there is always a clear cut answer, you never will actually need the complex stuff, and you can use a calculator! A person will need to be able to articulate an idea in a comprehensible fashion. I am never mean to the reluctant students, but drawing them out and getting them to talk about what they have written is so painful. How can i force someone who doesn't want to be there to be excited about a subject they hate? I really need to work on it. If someone hates English hopefully I can at least make them not hate the writing center. I want to help these students with their paper, but they have to play along to. I can’t give all the answers away as they nod and grunt from across the table. I need to make them meet me half way…