Re: Untrainable?

[Sara Kimball <skimball@uts.cc.utexas.edu>]

This is about what happened with a couple of undergraduates who weren't 
really working out as interns.  I think they found they didn't enjoy consulting 
much, and at the end of the semester they expressed no real interest in 
continuing.  It's a bit more tricky with the grad students, who are assigned to the center. 
I had one person our first year who I finally asked to work on some 
handouts, and I discretely cut his tutoring time. All of the first-year 
assistant instructors are assigned to the writing center, and they're 
kind of an unknown quantity, but I also have some graduate students in 
their 4th through 6th years. I refuse to take on anyone I have good 
reason in advance to think won't work out, as I did the the time the 
Division's administrative assistant, who does the scheduling announced, 
"So-and-So's not good with people, so I'll put him in the writing 
center." (I'm not kidding). I should add that "good with people in the 
writing center" covers a wide range of personal styles from quiet to 
boisterous and cheerful, and "problematic" covers a bunch of things 
from very socially inept to hysterical spoiled brat.
     

On Sat, 3 Feb 1996, Marcy Bauman wrote:

> > I've had people who lost interest along the way & I simply didn't offer 
> > them a job the next semester. 
> 
> I think Eric's on to something here.  I think the flip side of 
> understanding that it takes time for people to learn things and that 
> people have to _want_ to learn before they will is to understand that if 
> somebody doesn't want to, they won't.  And cut your losses.  Seems to me 
> this can be done while upholding everyone's dignity, too.
> 
> 
> Marcy Bauman
> Writing Program
> University of Michigan-Dearborn
> 4901 Evergreen Rd.
> Dearborn, MI 48128
> 
> email:  marcyb@umd.umich.edu
> 
>