College is Useless

I shared in class my one and only experience with a reluctant student. However, I will post the experience here as well and go into a little more detail. The student was an older woman who already had children. She was working at a preschool and getting educated in the profession in order to keep her position. She came with an attitude of, "I'm just here because my professor made me come." This started the session off badly.

I sympathized with her on the difficulty of making time for tutoring when she felt it was not useful. I told her we would try to move as fast as we could and make sure that we did what we were supposed to do before she got a signed sheet from me. I explained that I could not just give her a sheet, but that I could try to make the process less painful. This seemed to appease her, but as I began to ask questions and try to engage her, she gave me one-word answers and refused to fully participate. Because I was already trying to make the session as pleasant as possible for her, I became frustrated that she would continue to be unhelpful.

At the end of the session, which lasted at the most ten minutes, she said that she hated college and did not see the point in continuing. To her, college was a bunch of useless busy work. At times, I have agreed with her; however, this offended me because I love school. I grew up in a family that promoted education. My mom was the first in her family to graduate from college, and she did so after and having three children and being left by my father. It was not easy for her, yet she did it and always encouraged us to do it. My mom is a teacher, so her attitude comes from her profession. So, I did not know what to say to this student. I mostly kept quiet and tried to focus on finishing the tutoring session. I felt flabbergasted that anybody could have such "wicked" thoughts.

As I have thought about this situation, I realize that not everybody thinks the same way I do. Perhaps, as a tutor, I should have been more forgiving and tolerant. My judgment of her in my head may have contributed to her feelings of anger toward the university. I did not say anything to offend her, but my attitude may have shown through. I probably could have handled this better by trying to lift her up a little or giving her some words of encouragement. Next time, I am going to try that instead of letting my own preferences and personality get in the way of being able to respond to a student in despair.