| FYI |

5 Things I Wish You Knew about Going to a Tutor

By Shoshana Itzkowitz | May 11, 2021

There are lots of misconceptions when it comes to needing extra help in school, but just know that we are not dumb

Some of us are open about the fact that we have a tutor, some of us are not. Lots of girls truly could not care less, it’s just a part of life, and they’re super open about it. Others might say they don’t care or even joke about it, but sometimes that’s really just their way of trying to laugh it off because they’re a little self-conscious about it. And some girls are very private about it and really don’t want their friends to know they get tutoring.

Can I be very straight? I’m not dumb! Like, really not! There are lots of misconceptions when it comes to needing extra help in school, but just know that we are not dumb. There are lots of different ways to learn and many different parts of the brain. Studies show that formal classroom learning is actually not the best way of absorbing information, and lots of girls really have a hard time absorbing everything that’s being thrown at them. When we sit one- on-one with someone who explains the information to us, we process it and remember it much better.

If you know a girl goes to a tutor for any subject but she doesn’t talk about it… hello, social cues! Please ignore it and don’t mention it. Unless you also want to start tutoring, and you want to hear our experience and stuff… in that case, please be discreet and ask us privately — not at lunch in front of the whole world!

I have a friend whose brain is like a machine in some ways — if she has been somewhere once, she can direct you there and then back home. She’s a whiz at directions, and she’s super at anything visual. She can rearrange and organize an entire playroom or home study, and don’t ask what she can do with closets! She’s in 11th grade and she already has a business organizing peoples’ closets and office spaces! On the other hand, she fails every test in school if she doesn’t get extra tutoring for it. Like I said before, there are different types of smart…

For lots of us, school is still a super fun place. For many others, though, it’s agony. Eight hours a day of struggling and then having to spend extra time working and studying at night too… We need lots of breathing space and downtime, so if you see a friend struggling academically, try to do some extracurricular stuff with her. It’s really appreciated! Hey, want to go out for ice cream?

(Originally featured in Teen Pages, Issue 860)

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