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I have a student, she is 10 years old. Her mother has asked me to provide assistance in preparation for the admission process to the eight-year high school.
My student is extremely unmotivated to study math. Last week she told me that she has lost all her papers containing examples, that I gave her as a homework. Her mother has found all the papers later - the examples there were not computed. In addition, when I come to their house, my client, at least in the last couple of lessons, always comes late and sits late (5-7min) to her chair.
My analysis is that she has no desire for acquiring new knowledge in mathematics.
question: What can I do to motivate my young client to study?
I have talked to one friend, who already has a child, and he told me, that if a child is ordered to do something, it can either work or the child can create even a stronger resistance than before.
You might want to ask her why she's resisting. Can she see the problems? Does she think of private lessons as an insult to her intelligence? or a punishment?
Is she's resisting just to resist, probably not much you can do.
She's 10. She's probably more interested in playing soccer with her friends or Barbie or whatever 10 year old girls play today.
The bigger question is what kind of math is she studying that a 10 year old requires a tutor? Is it the same or different than what she is learning in school already? Is it just repetition of math she's already learned so she sees it a punitive repetition? Or is it too advanced for her age so she doesn't understand it?
What does mom say about it? Is 8 year high school common where you are or is it some elite school where mom's ego is wrapped up in it?
The type of math requires further knowledge of algebra, geometry, spatial imagination. It requires to have some knowledge from the higher Grades than just the 5th Grade, that my student attends.
There are also sooooo many relatively difficult word problems in math in the admission test.
Does the child want to attend this elite school? Does she have the aptitude for it? Is it a high pressure situation that would be detrimental to this child, who isn't demontrating strong academic motivation? It doesn't sound like, at this point in time, the parent's goal is a good match to the student. Which is to say, she sounds like a normal 10-year-old kid who should be playing on the swingset or mixing up a batch of glitter unicorn slime, not doing extra schoolwork in the afternoons. Absent further information, I'm not convinced that tutoring this child is in her best interest.
I'm not sure you can motivate her, and I'm not even sure that's your job.
When you go to their home, bring a book to read, and make a point of reading it while you're waiting. (Make sure you leave on time, and don't stay for those extra 5-7 minutes.) And then you can politely talk to the mother and say that you really appreciate her seeking you out, but you want to make sure she's aware of the child's attitude, in case the mother would like you to stop. That will get you off the hook if the mother complains about the child's lack of progress.
I do some private tutoring on the side, however, I've learned to be highly selective about who I tutor. If you just put yourself out there, most of your clients are unmotivated kids who really don't care 2 licks about what you're teaching them. The parents might be highly motivated, but the kid isn't and the parents are at a loss with what to do with them. At some point they give private tutoring a go to see if it makes a difference.
If I take on a new client, I have a frank discussion with the parents beforehand that if the kid doesn't want to do this, then it's not going to be effective. I don't like wasting their time or money.
It's much easier to motivate kids in classroom setting than in private tutoring. Students can be motivated by being successful in a well-run classroom and they can be highly influenced and reinforced by peers. Just sitting down with an old person doing some math problems on notebook paper is not going to motivate a kid.
My advice is to be frank with the parents and let them know that this isn't working out and you don't want to waste their time and money. Next time, make sure you screen your clients so you get situations where private tutoring is going to be effective. Students who perform poorly primarily due to motivation are the worst clients for private tutoring.
The type of math requires further knowledge of algebra, geometry, spatial imagination. It requires to have some knowledge from the higher Grades than just the 5th Grade, that my student attends.
There are also sooooo many relatively difficult word problems in math in the admission test.
. Is this a gifted child? Or a child whose parents want to believe is gifted? Perhaps the child has been pushed into a situation for which she's not ready, and has been stressed out from parental demands and expectations that she excel academically, and now they're telling her to prepare for an advanced exam requiring skills from higher grades. This is going to backfire on the parents, eventually. What you're seeing is just a symptom of a larger problem, is my guess; a problem you can do nothing about.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 03-15-2020 at 08:13 AM..
. Is this a gifted child? Or a child whose parents want to believe is gifted? Perhaps the child has been pushed into a situation for which she's not ready, and has been stressed out from parental demands and expectations that she excel academically, and now they're telling her to prepare for an advanced exam requiring skills from higher grades. This is going to backfire on the parents, eventually. What you're seeing is just a symptom of a larger problem, is my guess; a problem you can do nothing about.
I think you've diagnosed the issue with this child correctly.
These parents (and many others today) need to read the book "The Hurried Child". When my kids were young my wife read it and it opened her eyes. At the time we discussed the contents. Incidentally, all 3 of my kids are very well adjusted, in their mid to upper 30's, and have good careers now. There are times one must step back and think about what you're doing to your kids and who are you really doing it for.
This has to fit into her "what I want to be when I grow up" goal. Someone needs be able to explain to her how going to this school will let her accomplish that.
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