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The Real Power of Teaching One on One

My parents were slackers.  When I started kindergarten, I had never heard of the ABCs or numbers.  In school, I was labeled slow.  I didn’t much care.  I simply daydreamed and looked forward to recess.  I didn’t think the education part was important.

My parents did one really good thing for me.  They sent me to grandmother’s house for the summer.  I was five at the time.  My entire life was one of play.  I thought I was going for a summer of fun.  Boy was I in for a surprise.

What I didn’t tell you is that my grandmother was a retired first grade teacher.  She had one mission in mind and that was to get me “up to snuff”.  She sat me in a hard chair and got out an old pink timer with a turn dial.  “We’ll just work for fifteen minutes or so.”, she would say.  It seemed like an eternity.  For the first time in my life, I was expected to concentrate and work.  I started to cry and resist.  It had worked before.  To my surprise, grandma was tough as nails.  I knew I must comply or be in a lot of trouble. I cried and resisted every day for almost a month.  Good thing, although, grandma never gave up.

We started out with flash cards.  In fact, we did flash cards every single day.  And, those fifteen minutes got longer and longer.  We would always start out saying fifteen minutes and it would end up being a few hours.  I learned that I could sit still and discipline myself.  It was very hard at first, but I soon learned that I could do it.  I did it because I thought I had to.  Grandma required it.

By the end of the summer, I was reading quite well.  I could add, subtract, multiply, and divide.  I could multiply large numbers, but wasn’t up to long division.  My reading was awesome.  I was reading on an eighth grade level.  

I can still remember the day my first grade teacher discovered my new skills.  Upon arrival, of first grade, I was slotted for all the slow learner groups.  I was in the lowest reading and math groups.  I was only six and I didn’t notice or even care; at the time.  I had pretty much been ignored by my teachers; up to that point. 

Our school had a Bookmobile.  It was a large semi truck or portable library.  The books would come every once in a while and we could pick some out.  It was here I looked for books I liked and picked them out.  My teacher was a little surprised because the other slow kids weren’t very interested in the books.  So, my teacher says, “I don’t think you can read that book.”  It was more advanced than first grade.  I told her, “Yes I can.” and sat down and read her the book. The next day, I was promoted to the top reading and math class groups.  She ended up being my favorite teacher.  In fact, she was my teacher in third grade, also.

What I learned, from all this, is that one person can really make a difference.  It’s not that difficult.  You just have to make up our mind to do it.  One on one teaching is most effective.  Imagine how much you could learn if you were taught one on one for your whole school life.