Years ago, if you would have asked me about seeing a tutor I might have cringed and said “I don’t need help from a tutor!” In grade school, I knew many kids who had tutors. Those who would even have time slots out of their normal school days to learn about math or reading. Little did I know that I would one day become one of those kids.
When I was in first grade, I had to take many literacy tests to be assessed on my overall reading skills and fluency. To my dismay, I struggled with reading at a normal speed. My comprehension time took longer than normal reading levels. Over the course of about a year, I had to meet with my literacy tutor and practice reading, while the other kids were learning about spaceships and the solar system. I felt defeated that I wasn’t able to keep up with reading tests and was embarrassed that I had to be sent to a tutor for reading since I understood what the words meant.
Another example of a time where I really struggled academic-wise was in high school during freshman geometry. I just could not understand the concept of problem sets and flowchart proofs. So, I took it upon myself to meet with math tutors and teachers in our math lab to work on proofs tirelessly, but my grades improved tremendously. There I found the real value of tutors and seeking out help. As kids, the word “tutor” gets a bad rap because if we’re told that we need a tutor, it means that we were not smart enough to learn from our normal teacher. However, I was able to find the true value in tutoring.
Here were my past perceptions of tutoring:
- Seeing a tutor was only advised by your parents or teachers
- Tutors were not available for kids with sufficient enough academic skills
- Being tutored meant that you were not getting passing grades
These perceptions come from what I’ve experienced during school. I remember teachers and parents emailing to arrange for tutors to take kids out of their daily lessons. My family always wanted what was best for us academically, but we were never forced to see a tutor. I guess growing up with a family of teachers means that educating is in my blood, so I’m not surprised that I am currently a peer writing tutor at the DePaul University Center for Writing-based Learning.
While tutoring in college might be far different from tutoring elementary and high school kids, I think the functions and benefits of tutoring can apply to any age-range. Tutoring was stigmatized as training wheels for people who needed help on certain subject areas when I was growing up, but being a tutor now has taught me that it is so much more than that.
You Become a Better Student
Tutoring is not a one-way street, and I think there’s an expectation that a tutor has to know everything, but in all honesty most of the time I have no idea about specific grammar rules, citations, or different writing genres for lab reports, for example. Everyday people come in with different work and there is always something to learn from new ideas, perspectives, and skill levels.
For example, I had a writer who was aspiring to be a commencement speaker at graduation and was passionate about DePaul’s Vincentian mission. I came out of this session learning more about DePaul than I ever knew before! The writer was very well-equipped and shared his most valuable experiences during college, which made me very humble knowing how great our community is.
You Meet New People
One of the best parts of this job is the community we have built and the people I work with every day. Although I don’t get to see them in person at this time, I still feel more connected than ever. At the DePaul Writing Center, we establish a place of respect and inclusion as one of our core values, and I could not be prouder to work in a place with a strong support system.
Your Writing Improves
You’ll find yourself Googling different writing conventions, citation styles, and resume pointers, until you are 99.99% sure you have taught it to yourself enough to advocate for it. It’s a reciprocal learning process, and reading other people’s work is going to allow you to grow with your own writing. I worked on a copy editing project that was solely APA style, and having an updated edition, I had to double check everything I questioned. While challenging, I studied a new citation style and gained a new skill from it.
Being a tutor for a year has taught me a lot of new things, specifically being reliant and accountable. Not only do we have in-person appointments, but since we are remote now, tutoring sessions occur without the immediate support of our supervisors. However, staying connected online with everyone and knowing that fellow tutors are there for me is what makes this job so wholesome.
I get to help people and leave every day knowing that I was able to give support where it was needed. I think one of the best tutoring experiences I have had so far was a writer who was not confident in their writing skills and abilities and ended up walking away more confident in his writing. He even continued to visit the writing center and made three appointments with me for other assignments.
I have found the DePaul Writing Center to not only be a crucial resource for my writing skills and improvement, but a support system that has allowed me to grow within the position, and develop strong communicative and teaching skills because of it. Being able to work in a space that is just as passionate about writing as I am inspires me to learn more about this community that I am so grateful for at DePaul.
Being a writing tutor allows you to grow and create strong relationships with your fellow peers.There have been many times where I doubted my own writing abilities and needed help, as well. Tutoring and being tutored goes hand in hand, and it goes to show that everyone could use a little support every once and while. I’ve become a better reader and a listener because I was able to confide in a support system that valued my own ideas and perceptions, so I hope to do the same every day I get to help writers. It is humbling to know that DePaul writing tutors are there for you and I will always love being a writing tutor because of it.
