Diary Entry of a Math Tutor

Over the past few years of my life I have become quite accurate at predicting a person's response when I tell them that I majored in math. Usually when people ask me what I majored in I can't help but let out a little smile cause it gives me one more chance to test my statistical prediction abilities in a social situation. In fact, there is rarely a reply that deviates from the usual response list:
"Math? Are you going to be a math teacher?" (1st question)
"What do you do with a math major?" (2nd question)
and if the person has kids...
"So, you'd be able to help my son/daughter, _______ (insert child name here), with his/her math homework?"

The same parents that usually ask about lessons for their child never follow through because they don't want to pay for tutoring. It's like they think that I am nice enough to come over and do it for free, as if I enjoy teaching their kids things that their parents were too lazy to learn or teach themselves. And to be honest, I don't think that I have had any students that absorbed the material from their tutoring lessons. I have had many people pretend like they are trying to learn but their mind is usually on the clock or they are trying to learn trig when they don't even have a good enough grasp on algebra and geometry to solve anything. But those are the normal cases and statisticians are interested in the outliers...the extremely good students and the exceptionally horrible students.

In my four years of tutoring on and off, I did have one kid that completed his work and actively tried to keep his grade up. My number was passed to his mom about tutoring because he was falling behind in the 8^th grade accelerated class. I guess I was impressed with the fact that this kid's mom was actually an involved parent; she wasn't just paying for tutoring to pass him off. She didn't really complain about paying me or make it difficult by trying to talk me down to a lower hourly rate. More impressive was the fact that she wasn't breathing down my neck about every little detail and she wasn't a micromanaging, overly aggressive, or mean parent.

On the other hand, my worst student wasn't even a kid; she was a lady in her mid thirties returning to college to further her career. Apparently everything was going okay except her math class which is why she contacted me. We discussed her class and the approach that I would take along with the hourly rate and meeting times. The only thing that stayed constant was the hourly rate although she tried numerous times to talk me down. This lady would always cancel or show up late. I soon stopped answering her calls. The few times I did meet with her were a complete waste of money for her because she was in a class way above her level. One time she insisted on having her sister sit down with us. Over the course of the lesson I had to deal with her sister interjecting to get an understanding or to try and help explain it; we were only able to complete six problems in that session.

So to answer the number one question "Do I want to teach?" No, I don't. Anytime I get asked, I politely say no and explain my future plans. Although, I am sure that for a brief moment my facial expression betrays my words because I flash back over the horrible students I have dealt with like a Vietnam war veteran.