Inside of the Writers' Room last week, I sat and witnessed one consultant work with two clients. Both of them were in an introductory writing class and, instead of having their work read and "work shopped," they opted to have the consultant read it and sign it and then leave.
I am aware that not every tutoring session is going to be the most invigorating experience I've ever had. The consultant, however, chose to tell his/her boss, ten minutes after the two students left in a nagging tone I'd often associate with a little sister, about how these kids just didn't respect him/her. He/She barked about how they didn't want to let him/her improve their work, so they wasted his/her time and their own time.
This made me wonder about what kind of people we have currently reading over other peoples work in the room itself. So what if they only wanted you to read it and sign it, let them. Not everyone is going to be as gung-ho about bullshit essays they are forced to write. If you can't accept that the people you're dealing with aren't A+ English majors, then you are a failing tutor. But, I may be jumping to conclusions about this consultant. They could have had a bad day and maybe just needed to vent about something nonconsequential.
Either way, she acted similar to the example used in the Censorship essay we read, in terms of their aggitation towards another opinion. Honestly, I can't help anyone unless I toss my opinion into another part of my brain and let their opinion come over and hang out in my little head apartment. Once they leave, or once things are safe enough, I open the closet and let both of our opinions exist together, even if they don't change.
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I don't want to shut down productive criticism here, but I do want to encourage you not to fall into an antagonistic position toward other tutors/consultants. We all have bad days, as you point out; heaven knows I wouldn't want to be judged on some of my less-than-stellar interactions with or reactions to students from time to time!
ReplyDeleteI also don't really see the connection to the Sherwood article here. How is it censoring someone to be upset that they didn't want to improve a paper? You need to flesh out those connections between theory and practice more.
YOU USED A BAD WORD! :-O
ReplyDeleteI actually know what you are saying here. I actually saw a tutor turn someone away saying "We don't edit papers here." Okay...that hardly seems ethical to me. And, if it's our "obligation to teach moral ethics" or whatever, then the tutor who turns a student away who needs help is an utter failure.
You're so deep. I like the whole apartment analogy and I get what you're saying about the session you witnessed. I can see where the tutor would be put off by this behavior, but at the same time, I feel that at the end of the day, they, as well as we are there to do a job and a certain amount of maturity and professionalism needs to be in place. She could have just been having a bad day, but I say vent in private quarters in this situation, or not at all.
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