I will be the first to admit I wasn't always a great student when I was in school. In regular school, my own folks couldn't help me with my homework as neither parent had finished high school. They tried, but it was too much for them. So I really struggled through grade school and then high school. In college I struggled once again. I was smart, but I just couldn't understand some subjects the way they were taught, which honestly seemed all backwards to me. Science was a particularly difficult subject at the time. Try as hard as I might, I just could not seem to make sense of anything I was learning.
Then everything changed when a relative suggested I get a tutor. I looked around and found a great tutor. What a difference he made in my life. Suddenly, the things he did to help me made me realize that it wasn't me that had a problem; it was the way the subject was being taught in school. He helped me to create a context for what I had to learn, and gave me a logical order for everything. Things began to fall into place rapidly. Suddenly I could understand everything clearly. And the tutor would not only teach me out of the book, but would provide excellent analogies for everything I needed to understand. I ended up getting good grades in my science classes that followed, but most of all, I felt confident and also I felt as though I had really learned my subject. And in fact, I had.
Today I can tutor others because of the difference this man made in my life. I will never forget him; he did what most all of us tutors do today. We don't just tutor; we give you a context and the tools to learn and grow. Who do you remember who has taught or tutored you? What do you remember as being the most significant?