So this past Monday, the 24th, I went to the Writing Center and observed another tutoring session. This time, it was two students from the same class who were required to come in to receive help with their essays. The tutor was, uh, interesting...she began the session by saying something along the lines of "get ready for me torture you." Whatever that meant. She read the professor's comments and made some inappropriate comments about the professor and then the school. Both students had problems with their thesis statements and she explained what that was, which was alright. She also concentrated on a lot on their grammatical errors because she said that their essays were "alright." She seemed genuinely interested in the assignment and seemed to be getting along with the tutees, I just don't think she exhibited any real professional behavior.
What got me was her speech, maybe it was so that the students would be able to relate to her or something but she used a lot of profanity and made inappropriate comments. One of the students was of Latin origin and she spoke to him in Spanish most of the time and used Spanish slang. I thought this was rude because the other student didn't speak Spanish. However, he didn't really seem to mind. She asked both students to come back because she wanted to give them grammar lessons, she mentioned this to each student about twice, yet she told them that they didn't "need" her anymore. Then at one point she put her head down and sighed really heavily, I didn't know how to take that. I'm not sure if she was tired, bored, or if she had a headache.
Toward the end of the session, she had helped both students with their assignment. Both took some liking to her, especially the Latino who seemed to have gotten a lot done while she was helping the other tutee. Uhm, yeah, that's kind of about it.
I can't say I enjoyed observing the session, it made me feel super weird. However, it seemed as if neither student had a problem with the way she was doing things. They did accomplish what they went there to do and I guess that's the point but the way it was done was, uh, not cool. I guess.
So yeah.
For the letter to Bert, be sure to include details from the session to show examples of what you raise here. Try to repeat some phrases if possible. Was she tired? Why did the Spanish offend you?
ReplyDeleteIt was possible that she was tired, however, I'm not entirely sure because I didn't ask. Her speaking Spanish didn't necessarily offend me, I just thought it was unnecessary considering that all three of them were capable of speaking English.
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