I've been teaching, counseling, communicating and learning with students of all ages and from all cultures, in different places and in different ways, for over thirty years. From the NYC high school English, social studies, Romance Language, reading and algebra classes I've taught to the NYC Counseling and Drop-Out Prevention Program on the streets of Brooklyn and Queens to the Long Island Conservatory of Music and Arts Academic Tutorial Program in Albertson, New York, I've come across many different and interesting educational experiences. I've even taught public speaking, business English and sales communications to adults in the retail and advertising workplace, counseled and tutored young adults with special needs throughout the New York Metropolitan area, tutored child actors on location, and even taught English and math to young Italian and French students abroad in the early years of my career (...and to think that I didn't like school when I was younger, and that I wasn't even supposed to come this far in the first place).
Interestingly, throughout it all, the constant has clearly been: "we can all learn and we all do it in different ways." As a tutor, listening to my student and individualizing the lesson so he/she can best comprehend it has always been, and continues to be, the big challenge - something I look forward to in every new relationship. It is exactly that, I feel, that good education and effective tutoring eventually becomes - a relationship. It's designed to involve and include the student and make him/her comfortable, with a little tension, in the overall learning process. It is exactly why I often hear: "So, Mr. V., that's it! So, why was I worried so much..." To that I usually say: "Don't worry, don't beat yourself up. Just give me a call, and we'll work it out."
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