Oh dear

Last student of the day was a sad case. She comes to the Center a lot, and I mean a lot: she's broken the "one appointment and one drop-in per week" rule by a long shot on at least one occasion. It was interesting to go back through other tutors' notes about those appointments. Some were "Yay, she's set to go!" and others were "Omigod, she can't do anything." I found myself more in agreement with the latter view: she clearly wants to do well, but getting her to think beyond the most absolutely superficial statements of fact is an exercise in frustration and probably in futility. We were working on the poem "Sympathy," by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and I was trying to get her to think more deeply than just the "cage = slavery" idea. I asked why a bird not some other animal, like a lion. She said because a bird can fly, and a lion can only walk. OK: so what's important about the ability to fly? She said something marginally useful--but then she read back what she'd entered into the paper on her computer: "He writes about a bird because a bird can fly and a lion can only walk." Uh, no: that was just an example, Sweetie. You need to have the idea about the bird.

I wrote out some questions for her to try to answer but her chances of being able to answer them in any coherent way are pretty slim, I think. I don't think she's lazy; after all, she keeps coming to the Center. I believe she simply doesn't know how to think, and although I hate to say it, she simply may not be capable of thought on the kind of level we expect in college. Not everyone is.

My second student of the day was another case along those lines. His case was not quite as severe, but he also didn't quite understand that the evidence he provides needs to actually be evidence with a purpose--and that purpose needs to be to prove a case that he is going to make. He fulfilled the basic parameters of the assignment in using the number and type of sources he was required to use, but he did not understand the prompt in the first place, and even when I explained it, he didn't understand how to make points that would create an argument.

I try to remember to be encouraging and to tell them when they're doing something right, but sometimes I feel like the professor my grad school mentor told me about: the only positive thing she could think to say regarding a paper was, "You certainly put a lot of words on the page."

I'm taking the students out of order here--not that it matters--but my other two appointments were both more satisfying. The first of the day was Silent Betty. She does, in fact, struggle with subject/verb agreement, as became obvious when she showed me the worksheets she'd done on her own. There were three areas of confusion: 1. That the singular verb takes an "s" ending and the plural does not; 2. That that rule doesn't apply to irregular verbs; and 3. That that rule doesn't apply to the pronouns "I" or "you." Then she asked me how to write an essay. Took me a while to parse that down to an answerable question, but what she really wanted to understand was where and how to come up with examples for the basic five-paragraph format. I am struck all over again by the things we take for granted as manifestly obvious that sometimes turn out to be utterly opaque to students.

The other satisfying appointment was a drop-in, and we didn't have the entire period in which to work, but he needed a little help on how to do research--something at which I really suck personally, so I always dread getting that question (and my first line of defense is "see that 'chat with a librarian' function? Use that."). And he needed some help with focus, which was a lot easier. Earnest--and actually took notes without being prompted, which is always a good sign.

And that was it for the day. I hear through the grapevine that the Center is not getting anywhere near the usual traffic--largely because enrollment is down again, I'm sure--which does not bode well for the newer adjuncts when it comes to next year: they may hire a lot fewer of us. Of them: I won't be in competition for whatever slots there are.

I'm actually way past my official end time here, but I wanted to blast off a quick blog post, especially as I won't be blogging next week: it's spring break, so the Center will be closed, and even if I do any of my own writing, I probably won't think to blog about it. At this point, I have a couple of things on my docket for the week but not much--and I'm looking forward to being able to shape each day as it comes along, even if the shape is awfully amorphous.

So, my faithful readers, enjoy the burgeoning of spring, if that's happening where you are, and I'll be back blogging on April 22.