Love this article.... Tutoring is not making everything completely personalized and individualized for each student, as if history and tradition and logic had no bearing on what is studied and when. Instead, as tutors, we have the opportunity to meet the child where he’s at rather than where generic standards say he should be. The only way he’s actually going to climb that rock wall is if he takes the next step right above him – shouting and pointing at the very top rock or painstakingly demonstrating how to properly climb the rocks below him is not actually helpful. Instead of being teachers focused on communicating specific material over the course of a year, we are tutors, coaches, mentors, disciplers. We will have better success if we see our mission not as trying to get through curriculum or achieve certain test scores but as guiding the beginning of a human being’s journey on the path of virtue. The path itself is as old as the world – not individualized – but the coaching and mentoring done to keep the child on the path and to show him how to travel it successfully is individualized and primarily relational. As mother-tutors, we have a small flock that we shepherd in the way they should go. We need to nurture and strengthen our relationships with our children, because that is where our advantage and our true calling lies. Our job is to bring in what life-giving nutrition each requires to grow and develop, but we don’t have to be the producers or pre-digesters of that feed. Our role is to watch, guard, tend, prod, and guide. Our role is consume life-giving soul- & mind-food ourselves so we can model, lead, and keep up. Shepherds know their flocks – the weaknesses, strengths, temptations, and tendencies – and they watch the backs of those under their care. Homeschool mama, you don’t need to be an expert, a specialist, or a professor. You need to be a watcher, a learner, a coach, intent upon your children’s needs and modeling the more excellent way for them.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 19:13:24 +0000
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