I got fired yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 No, no, no, not from my full-time gig as a children’s librarian: from a new tutoring job that I had taken on for this month.\u00c2\u00a0 I had agreed to tutor this student, who is going into the eighth grade at a school that specializes in Orton Gillingham,\u00c2\u00a0even though I had some reservations about my ability to help her.\u00c2\u00a0 My specialty is tutoring students using the Wilson Reading System, which is based upon Orton Gillingham, but differs in many practical ways from Orton Gillingham.<\/p>\n
And the moment I arrived at the student’s house on Tuesday, I could see that the student had reservations, too.\u00c2\u00a0 It was abundantly clear from the start of that lesson that there was nothing I could do or be to win over this student.\u00c2\u00a0 Without a doubt, that lesson was the toughest one that I have ever taught.\u00c2\u00a0 Light humor didn’t work, being firm but fair didn’t work.\u00c2\u00a0 Not one of the three assignments that I gave in that hour interested the student.\u00c2\u00a0 As we got further into the hour, the student’s baseball cap came further and further down over her eyes, until I couldn’t see her face at all.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
I tried, but it was\u00c2\u00a0obvious this wasn’t going to work.\u00c2\u00a0 I sat down with the mother at the end of the lesson and told her that, in my opinion, her daughter\u00c2\u00a0didn’t want to be tutored.\u00c2\u00a0 The mother was very surprised, said she’d talk to her daughter and get back to me.\u00c2\u00a0 It was no\u00c2\u00a0shock to me when I got an email from the mother\u00c2\u00a0yesterday saying “thanks, but…”.<\/p>\n
The moral of this tale?\u00c2\u00a0 These things can’t be forced.\u00c2\u00a0 This student probably needed a full summer break from school and learning, and nothing I could have done would have made her enjoy working with me.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t take it personally.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe.\u00c2\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I got fired yesterday.\u00c2\u00a0 No, no, no, not from my full-time gig as a children’s librarian: from a new tutoring job that I had taken on for this month.\u00c2\u00a0 I had agreed to tutor this student, who is going into the eighth grade at a school that specializes in Orton Gillingham,\u00c2\u00a0even though I had some … Continue reading When things don’t work out…<\/span>