Apprenticeship Session 4: 3/24/08

Unfortunately no student showed up to this session, and so I spent the time talking to the writing fellows. I asked them what they thought the hardest part of tutoring a student was, and they said the most difficult thing was trying to strike a balance between being a peer and being a tutor.

That makes a lot of sense to me. As a peer of the writer, you are considered equals. You both attend the same university and have probably taken a few of the same classes. You are both smart, or you wouldn't be there. Yet being a tutor elevates you to a higher position than the student that you are tutoring. You are considered to be an authority on the subject of writing if not the subject that the student is writing about, and as an authority you are expected to have a much greater knowledge than the student.

It's a dichotomy that I feel is worth investigating. I know that when I personally talk with a writing fellow about my own writing, I feel intimidated without being intimidated. I know that we are both college students, only a year or two apart in age and education, and that we both have taken or are taking English 383 so we both have some knowledge about peer tutoring. Yet I automatically assume the submissive, respectful role that I would when speaking with a teacher.

It definitely seems to me that the hardest part of being a tutor would be in finding a balance between being a tutor and being a peer, finding the middle ground between being aggressive and being passive.