15th January 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A recent article on the Telegraph’s website tells of the possible tutoring woes of students, and their tutors, when lessons are arranged during the holidays. The tutor is an anonymous author; for obvious reasons a tutor wouldn’t want his/her students finding reading the deepest darkest confessions of how strange some clients can be, but some of the revelations are very honest indeed.
The tutor explains that on one occasion he was flown to a family’s holiday home at the start of the Christmas holidays, to begin a week of intense tutoring with the son. However, upon entering the house, rather than greeted by an excited student, the young boy threw himself to ground and beat it with his fists, while shouting “No!” Another student was caught with a tear in his face during the summer holidays, apparently thinking about how he could be outside playing, rather than being tutored.
The author does point out that some students really enjoy and benefit from lessons during school holidays, but maintains that it can be taken too far. Obviously for families who don’t celebrate Christmas, the two weeks off school, just before important exams, are seen as an opportunity to get ahead of everyone else, and tutors are expected to make themselves available.
The message in the article is that parents should ensure that their child actually wants tuition over the holidays (some genuinely do!). If the student is unhappy, then it’s likely to be very frustrating for the tutor too.