Tutoring

I have taken in a 7th grade boy as my tutor student. His mom runs a congee shop in the neighborhood, which by the way the food is yummy. He is one of those clever kids who has every trick under his sleeve to do everything fun except for homework. Sound familiar?

The first lesson is English. He has to transcribe the vocabulary from a passage to his exercise book. It's done in ten minutes and he thinks the lesson is over. Right. I make him read the passage over and over again till he can pronounce every word. The witch tutor!! All along I will be whispering hints and clapping when he gets it right. I can tell with his little smile he is mighty pleased with himself.

I hear the adults have pretty much given up on him and his grades, though I think otherwise. All he needs is some form of positive reinforcement to gently coax him into thinking that school matters. Then again I believe a good character is more important than grades which happily he already exhibits. He greets everyone, runs errands for his mom and even gives Porky a free cake coupon for his birthday.

Let him be, he is only thirteen and if he makes it to college there are eleven more years of studying ahead. From what I can tell he is a good kid at heart and it's a great start.