On the bus earlier today, I spaced out and wondered what type of teacher/mentor/tutor would I be if I were to teach and guide a younger one.
Will I be strict, unfeeling and demanding towards my pupil? Or will I spoonfeed my pupil and guide him/her through babywalk steps? Will I be the egoistic sort who goes on and on about my education background, or the philosophic kind who teaches everything but topics from the syllabus?
I never like to teach/tutor, I took up the assignment simply ‘cause I need to pian jiak. As much as I can tolerate shit like waiting for people, I doubt I have the patience or good heart to guide a young one and make them learn.
Did I tell you I am quite wary of kids? (Damn The Singapore Brainest Kids! They intimidate me!) I like infants and toddlers; but I am afraid of kids. The kind that I have seen in the past when I worked in the service line are scheming, spoilt and bratty.
But my first two tuition kids proved me wrong!
It was quite a breeze tutoring them even though I myself had jitters in the beginning. I had expected them to be boys, and yes they are. (NO, I am NOT grinning like a paedophile!) One is a primary 5 kid, and the other, a sec 1 boy.
Boys will be boys - I know they are the playful and cheeky sort. But throughout the 3 hours session, they were pretty well-behaved and polite. Nothing like the lazy and bratty school kids I had expected.
I let my guards down when I spoke to them. They are friendly and innocent. They have no qualms about telling me they felt nervous while calculating. They have an air of candor and they spoke without any pretence of trying to impress me.
For the first time, I am actually tutoring kid maths when I myself failed my O-level maths miserably. (Oh well, I retook and got a B3 eventually smirk)
And for the first time, I dared to speak to kids.
