Miss Tran.

I have a lot of posts that I want to write about and I do have plans to do them at some point. It’s just that I have met my downloading quota and so, going to new sites confuses my internet connection which results in my computer freezing.

Ok, so the post I want to do now is about tutoring and for many, many Asians, this would no doubtedly bring back painful memories of Chinese/Vietnamese classes, pre-selective tutoring and pre-HSC tutoring from Pre-Uni, James An or if you’re from Hurlstone, Dr. Truong.

I have also joined the ranks of being a tutor and like most people, largely for the reason that it is essentially easy money. However, unlike my peers, it’s not private tutoring for HSC students but instead I was hired by my old tutoring centre to teach small children, that is, Yr 1 and Yr2.

That’s right, after years of complaining about tutoring and doing every thing I could to avoid it, I am now inflicting myself onto small children in order to earn some money despite believing that Yr1 and 2 are far too early to actually be tutored and would never do this to my own children. And yes, that is my morals being flushed down the drain.

However, I have been learning from this job as a tutor and have a much more deepened understanding of education.

From this experience, I am more confident that education really is the only factor that will influence you as a person and that a teacher who pays a little more attention to you can really make a difference.

I have also been overwhelmed with two emotions: a sense of appreciation for my old high school teachers from the sheer amount of work, marking and effort involved in my own education and allowing me to be where I am today; and a sense of arrogance that they, unlike me, were dealing with high-schoolers with attention spans longer than peas who could be controlled with reasoning and threats as opposed to being bribed with food. (This does not include my Legal Studies class in which the teacher essentially brought us food every week).

This arrogance of course, does not extend to my primary school teachers who were in the same position as me and thus, still have my respect. Except for my OC teacher who was an ass and had never had my respect in the first place and from this experience, I have been forced to conclude that he is still, an ass, because he is an incompetent moron who was too blind to realise that Primary school children should not be learning Advanced Algebra but just wanted to suck up to the Principal.

Lastly, I’m a little embaressed at my audacity to consider a career in teaching in the event that my UAI was too low given the fact that I am physically exhausted after a three hour session with the little brats. It is clear that I do not have the capabilites of being a teacher and that I should just stick with easier tasks like completing a Commerce degree.