A rant on tutoring

I’m a graduate student and tutor in my ’spare’ time because I need the money.  Usually this is a good experience, and it allows me to refresh my memory on things I haven’t done in many years.  Tonight was the exception.

First, this kid shows up with a 31 page pdf document.  Then they proceed to start drawing a picture without saying what problem they’re working on.  That’s usually not a good sign.  Of course it’s the very first problem, which tells me they haven’t actually tried to do anything on their own yet, which is always annoying.  Then, it’s a problem that I literally haven’t seen or done in 10 years.  As is the policy, I tell them that I’m not familiar enough with that material, and that they should catch another tutor.  While I know I could figure out the problem, it would take more time than the student would be willing to spend I’m sure.  Normally when I tell a student this, they are fine and move on.  Not this student.  They proceeded to tell me how that’s terrible, and questioning if I’m a physics teacher.

First off, who remembers every detail of every class they’ve taken?  Even more, who remembers the details of something they learned once in an introductory class 10 years ago?  And who is this kid to question my qualifications on a problem they also don’t know how to do?  To pass judgement so quickly is amazing to me.  It doesn’t matter that I can go days without missing a question.  All that matters to this kid is that I didn’t know what they needed help on.  They should be grateful this service even exists so someone can lead them through their homework, at no expense to them.

I rarely have the need to vent, but since I couldn’t go off on the kid without losing my job, I guess that leads me here.  Thank you for listening.