She Works Hard for the Money

After trying, and failing, to set up private tutoring this summer, I resorted to working for Kaplan, a massive education company that primarily does tutoring and test prep. After some very extensive training (which I found rather boring since it was designed for people with no teaching experience), I have been assigned four students, all of whom I tutor in-home. Although I've been trained in both math and reading programs, all of my students are enrolled in reading only. Kaplan is not cheap - although to look at my salary you'd think it was - and meeting these families and seeing these spectacular apartments has been one of the most interesting parts of this whole endeavor.

Profiles of my students (with names changed to protect the innocent):

Adam - Adam will begin second grade in fall. He is tall and well-spoken for his age. He is an only child, and his parents live in a two-story apartment on the Upper West Side; it's close enough that I can ride my bike there. His mom works for Macy's, and although I'm not sure what his dad does, I am sure that he's very, very good at it. I work with Adam for 45 minutes a day four mornings a week before he goes to day camp. He's a sweet kid, but he's been led to believe that he's the best thing since sliced bread and our first few sessions together consisted of lots of testing from him. Unlike other adults in his life, however, I am not moved by fake tears, and now that all of that unpleasantness is out of the way we're getting along quite well. It's interesting to interact with doormen, about half of whom know me by now and greet me as though they're delighted to see me. This would be flattering if I didn't know that it's part of the job description.

Evie - Evie will also begin second grade in fall. I've never met her father, but her mother is a writer and has contributed to virtually every magazine you can think of, from Parenting to The New Yorker. She's got a book coming out soon, and is quite a nice lady, although unfortunately I've only met her once; her nanny or her mother are usually there watching the kids after camp. Evie has a twin who is a very proficient reader. She was embarrassed to have to be tutored at first - her decoding skills are kind of a mess - but she's decided that she likes me and we have fun together. I will most likely not be retaining her once school starts, as the trek to the Lower East Side will be too much when I've got a full courseload to contend with.

Nellie - Nellie is my oldest student. As an incoming fifth grader, she reads at a first grade level. She's VERY behind in almost every aspect of reading, and while she enjoys creative writing, other kinds of writing are like pulling teeth with her. About three minutes into the initial assessment, I made a mental note to ask her dad, a lovely guy who teaches second grade, whether they'd ever had her hearing tested; something about the way she was speaking and repeating sounds just didn't seem right. Moments later, he walked into the room and asked her if she was wearing her hearing aide (she was not). Mystery solved. Kids with hearing loss have difficulty with reading more often than not because they can't distinguish between sounds as well, making the process of connecting them with letters even more difficult. I'm not sure how extensive Nellie's hearing loss is. She was able to hear me enough to respond appropriately without her hearing aide at the beginning of the test, but I always make sure she has it on now before we start. She's very sweet and eager to please, which is important because she has a long road ahead if she's going to improve. She lives waaaay out in Queens, meaning that I won't be able to keep her when the school year starts either.

Sylvia - I have not actually started working with Sylvia yet, although I've met her. Her parents decided to give her a break for most of July, so we'll get going near the end of the month. She will be starting second grade in fall. Her mom is a doctor and had twin boys about two months ago. She's got another little brother, too, so there's a lot of activity going on in their apartment. They live in one of the Trump Towers and their apartment overlooks the Hudson River and the park. The walls that aren't all glass have huge windows in them, so it's pretty beautiful. Her dad supposedly invented the mechanism that allows people to tap ID cards on sensors that let them through turnstiles. He's very nice and is the one primarily home with the kids, because I think the mother's schedule is pretty crazy. There are two nannies as well. Sylvia is very sweet and wants to excel. She and Adam live very close together on the Upper West Side, so I'm hoping to keep both of them when the school year starts; if I can schedule their sessions back-to-back and do them twice a week, I should be able to fit everything in.