"There's a hole in the world tonight..." ~Eagles

So far I’ve only had one really reluctant tutee. It was at ASH and completely obvious he was being forced to be there. I walked around the room, asking the different athletes what they’re working on, when I finally found one who was working on a paper! I will proceed to tell the story Michael Style:

Me: Hey! Are you working on a paper?

Tutee: Yeah.

Me: (over-joyed) Fantastic! I can help, if you’d like! What have you got so far?

Tutee: (Turning his computer towards me, revealing an empty word document) This much.

Me: All right! Well, then, what’s the assignment supposed to be on?

Tutee: (Turning the computer screen back towards him) A life-changing experience.

Me: Ok.. (Pausing to think about it myself, then grabbing a chair and sitting down at the table) Well, let’s think about that. Are you close with your family? Was there an experience that made you close to them?

Tutee: No.

Me: Ok… Well, what about football? It’s obviously important to you. Do you remember the first time you picked up a football? Or how did you get into it?

Tutee: Football isn’t a life-changing thing, though.

Me: Oh. Well, then. (Thinking about it more) How about taking a common phrase like “Honesty is the best policy”? Was there an experience where you’ve found that honesty really is the best policy?

Tutee: I don’t believe that.

Me: Oh. Well, you could still do that with other phrases, though. Maybe instead of thinking of experiences and trying to think of a moral at the end of it, you should work the other way: Think of the moral and see if you can remember an experience that goes along with it.

Tutee: Ok.

Me: (stretching to feel like I’ve done something) And football wasn’t anything amazing?

Tutee: Well, I don’t think I can write very much about it.

Me: How long does it have to be?

Tutee: I don’t know. Six pages, I think.

It ended with another athlete asking if I could help him with his paper and the current tutee pushing me away, saying “Yeah, you go help him.”

But other than that, I’ve been able to get most quiet or reluctant tutees to eventually become more talkative and into the session. In one session, the tutee was doing the typical “reluctant tutee” body language: leaning back in the chair, arms folded, the pen I handed him was lying on the table. The session hadn’t even STARTED YET! So before I did, I leaned back in my chair, sighed and asked “So, how’s it goin’?” He answered good but tired. “Yeah, me too! Having a hard time sleeping these days. Has that ever happened to you?” He answered by telling me all the time. Still leaning back in my chair, his paper on the table, I asked him, “Well, what is the paper supposed to be on?” “Some experience we’ve had.” “Yeah? I had to do that when I was in the class, too. My biggest problem is that I like to talk, so when given the opportunity to talk about myself, I tend to go over board.” He laughed and said “Yeah.” I persisted (Laughing is ALWAYS a good sign) “So what experience did you choose?” And he FINALLY sat up, scooted his chair closer to the table (I did the same). The session turned out to be very productive. He picked up his pen and started asking me questions about what I thought on specific parts. Good experience!

So Yeah… That’s all