It turns out that getting that algebra tutor was the best decision I have ever made in my young life. Algebra tutoring was pretty painless. As a matter of fact, it actually saved me time. There was a lot that I wasn’t really getting, partly because I had trouble with algebra, and partly because my book was not very well designed and my teacher was not skilled at his job. The mathtutoring, by working one-on-one with me twice a week, was able to explain to me some really difficult concepts that I wasn’t understanding on my own. He could make stuff that would have seemed impossible easy.

After spending many hours over the semester showing her these shortcuts and explaining the logic, she came to me one day and said, “Mom, I know you want to help me, but actually I’m more confused than ever! You get the answers right, but in class I can’t do it their way!” My poor little sweetie had been reluctant to hurt my feelings. I was clueless that this was the effect of my teaching efforts. Instead of helping, I’d only made things worse.

I made an appointment to speak with her math teacher and see what could be done to provide some real help. This teacher was very generous with his time and more than willing to go the extra mile with any of his students to get them on track. He offered to serve as her algebra tutor, indicating that he also knew other former students who would be happy to help. We set up a schedule of after class algebra sessions.