Back
Yesterday, I shared Kerrin’s story (here), whose 14 year old son recently learned how to learn and reaped awesome benefits: more accountability, higher grades, more relaxed etc. Kerrin too enjoyed being able to step back, saying it was a ‘relief’ for them both (and she really liked not having to ask him about his homework because she knew he was on top of it).
This post is to help shed light on why tutoring by subject isn’t the solution, but a quick sidebar: the results outlined above are common when you give your teen the tools to step up, and you yourself in turn take a step back. I literally see it happen in families across North America every single week, sometimes within a matter of days. If you’re reading this and wishing you could see something similar in your home, YOU CAN – let us help. It doesn’t have to be such a struggle for you and your teen.
Kerrin shares that they’d had tutors in the past, for math especially, but they realized it wasn’t solving the real problem he was having.
Despite showing struggles with math in particular, math content wasn’t the core issue. His lack of skills and structure in knowing how to learn math – and English and all his other subjects – was the issue.
She realized something that many parents don’t realize until college: it’s not about getting tutors for individual subjects, it’s about learning the skills to succeed in all subjects (and life).
In her own words –
“We default to tutoring.
‘Oh you’re struggling in Language Arts, let’s get a tutor for that.” Math, same thing. But I think there’s been a fundamental change in learning and teaching and I don’t think kids – at least my kids – were given a structure. We think it’ll come naturally but some kids don’t know how to do that. They don’t even know where to begin and it can be overwhelming and they shut down and like Brennan, just started to be like oh well…this is what my grades are, this is what high school is gonna be.
I wasn’t willing to accept that and I’m glad he wasn’t able to accept it. Searching out the fundamental issue, which isn’t subject by subject, is my advice. It’s great to see him achieving again and feel good about achieving again.
He doesn’t have all the strategies down but he knows that if he implements them – because he has for 8 weeks – he’ll succeed. He was very relaxed…he had the busiest schedule he’s had in a long time and still got As and Bs and that was simply not the case before.
Don’t give up hope. There’s fundamental learning that can happen that can improve anybody’s educational experience.”
🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌
Your child + learning skills = unstoppable.
In as few as 8 weeks.
If you’re sick of the tutor trap and want real, lasting change in your teen’s relationship with school and learning – yes, including higher grades more importantly greater confidence, self-motivation and clarity on how smart and capable they truly are – book a call with my team here.
If we see that your teen is ready to level up, we’ll get clear on a roadmap for exactly how to do this; if they’re not quite there yet, we’ll share resources to best support them in the meantime.
To staying hopeful and taking action,
Kelsey
