Part 71
"Thank you for sitting in on this," Kathleen said to Alexis. "It will really help; this second pair of eyes and ears." They were at the Port Charles Grill, waiting for a tutor candidate to meet them.
"I'm so glad Oksana left this to you," Alexis said. "She knows what she is doing when it comes to delegating a business deal; I've noticed that. I'm just glad to be of use on any non-business end – you know – where's she's weak."
"Yeah," Kathleen grinned, "but thank you again. You're taking time from your practice."
"Oh well, I'm not worth much with my loyal assistant halfway around the world," Alexis laughed. "I wonder what Yekaterinburg is like this time of year?"
"Cold!" Kathleen said.
"Good call!"
The first tutor they interviewed was Frank Hall, who had tutored Nicholas in History and English for two years. He had a program all set out – Alexis remembered seeing it before. It looked pretty good; it had details and all sorts of explanations.
"Can you be flexible on it?" Kathleen said. "Our student could use a broad based approach."
"How do you mean?" he asked.
"More of an analog processor than a digital, Mr. Hall," Kathleen said helpfully. "Big picture type. Internally organizes things. Not so much systematic activity, but more of exposure to the information, then let him roll it around in his head for awhile. Let him organize it and put it all together then. No time controls, say, like you have here, instead of saying 2 hours on political history then one on the military situation, and then having a test, just go through it all without labeling it separately, do a couple more of these plans, add in the social mores of the day and the science of that era, say. Then let it alone for a few days, then have a test."
Alexis looked at Kathleen with total admiration, while Frank Hall looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
"I assure you this plan has worked for many students," he said. He looked at Alexis for help. "Nicholas did wonderfully on this, and passed the State Regent's tests with high scores every time."
"I think Ms. Connor thinks this student is different," Alexis said.
"I'm not saying it's not a great approach," Kathleen said, "It is really. I'm talking about how to vary it when the student is very right-hemisphere dominant. I mean, that's the advantage of the tutor, right? We can tailor to the student in question."
"Of course," Mr. Hall said. "This program is worked out over time, though, and is perfectly effective. We can slow it down if the student is learning disabled," he said, as if he thought they were fraudulently trying to hide this fact from them.
"No, no," Kathleen said. "It's not the program itself, either. I'm only talking about varying the approach. Attention Deficit Disorder without hyperactivity. But intelligent."
"There are medications for that," Mr. Hall answered. "I teach the student one on one, but other than that, it isn't different from being in school. In school they would not vary the approach for ADD students."
"Of course not," Kathleen said. "I'm only talking about taking the opportunity to do that, where it exists, because there are no other class members."
"Well, you have my card," he said, getting up, as if he thought he had better run before he was caught in a landslide. "Call me if you need me."
The next one, Andrea Donnelly, was in her fifties, and had been tutoring special education children for about 5 years. She thought the student needed to have more self-discipline and learn to control his behavior. She had some theories on that. She also thought medication was advisable.
Alexis and Kathleen rolled their eyes and looked at each other as she left.
The third, Amanda Friel, was about 30 and had tutored a wealthy family's children for five years, and had recently been thrown out onto the market due to the last one finishing up as a senior. "Not real promising for us," Kathleen said in undertone to Alexis, as Ms. Friel came over.
"Hmmm. Interesting," Ms. Friel said. "I don't know. I mean, I don't know anything about how to teach that kind of student specifically. I've never seen a program designed for that. From experience and what I've read, they simply throw them into regular school, label them disordered, and give them medication so they will function like Left-Dominant thinkers. But if you had a big enough school, where you had enough students to organize it, you could do this – it's not a bad idea, at that. Have classes for that group, and they wouldn't seem disordered, as we put it."
"Exactly," Kathleen said. "I was thinking that as a tutor it may be possible. I didn't realize I would bamboozle the tutors with that thought, though. I've been frightening them all away with it."
"You know, it could be done," Ms. Friel said, looking off and thinking. "In fact, put a – what we call a normal student – a left brain student – into this hypothetical right brain class, and they would have the disorder. They wouldn't be able to concentrate."
"Right," Kathleen said. "For instance, here is this other tutor's plan. I was thinking he could broaden it and make more of an overall approach, and have fewer tests and at later times. In the end, the student would understand the same material as any other would with the exact approach he has here."
"OK," Amanda took Frank Hall's program and looked at it. "We could go through all these units he has divided by subject for the era, before the test. Even mix up his subunits to make it varied. Skip the quiz he has on military, for example, or just make it a homework assignment, or even a game. The student you describe would learn by doing much better than these lectures, so we skip some of this and get the student to research it instead, inventing some underlying pretext. Like: you are the finance minister; do a report for the King of England on the effects of his taxes, something like that."
"Right," Kathleen said, "I think you're onto my thought."
"And this, " Ms. Friel added, frowning at Hall's report, "I have an idea. Take this 'Reasons the South Seceded.' One could tell the student: Argue the case with me. I give the reasons the South should not secede - and ask the student to argue with me like he's a Southerner and wants to make the arguments in favor of it. After that, this student would pretty much understand the reasons the South seceded."
"Probably he would really understand, them, too," Alexis agreed. "Rather than just memorize them and spit them out on the next day's test like I did way back when! I think your way would work!"
"I'm sure it will," Kathleen added, smiling.
