| November 12, 2007, marked the day my adulthood began: exactly one month after my eighteenth birthday, I received a job offer from Hawaii Pacific University Tutoring Center. Legally, I was already an adult. It was my experience working at the tutoring center, however, that really helped me to become one.
My first day at work taught me a life lesson that I will never forget. I came to work all dressed up, with mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety, wondering who I would be teaching. My client that day was a nervous-looking middle-aged man. As soon as we sat down to work, I could see that he was not excited to be there. He showed me a few problems from his trigonometry homework. To me, the problems seemed easy, but every time I asked him a question or tried to outline a solution, the client just looked at me blankly. I started to lose confidence. Just as I was about to give up, the man began laughing. He revealed that he was actually a math teacher sent by the tutoring center to test if I was ready for the job. He gave me a pat on the shoulder and said: “Keep in mind: the ultimate job of a tutor is not to solve the question, but to help your student fully understand the method behind it.”
Reflecting on his advice later that night, I remembered the days when my mother had spent hours tutoring me in math. She understood that there is a vast difference between solving a problem and teaching it to somebody else. Her patient explanations helped me to overcome stumbling blocks and to gain the confidence to approach problems on my own. My later success and enjoyment of math was greatly shaped by her approach.
I returned to the tutoring center for my next client – and each client thereafter – with the math teacher’s words and my mother’s example in mind. Since I started working there, I have been named “tutor of the month” twice. I have gained maturity and confidence by helping others to learn math. I hope to pursue this type of job at whichever institution I attend. |