Re: selecting tutors

[Julie Neff <neff@ups.edu>]

Hi Mickey, 
I found your situation interesting and, since I'm on spring break, thought I
would reply.  How about asking the student to apply for the class next year?
In a small class one difficult person can ruin the class for everyone else.
I also would have reservations about her ability to work with students in
the writing center.  What is her major?  Do you need the body in the class?
are two other questions I would ask?  Do you have test scores for her or a
GPA?  Two years ago I passed up hiring a Rhodes candidate because the peer
advisors said that he was a Know-it-all in and out of class.  I've never
been sorry, and the Rhodes committee passed him up too in the end.  
Sorry I missed you at the convention.
Julie 

At 09:18 AM 3/21/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Help...I'd really appreciate hearing some thoughts on the following
>problem that just sprung up here. For our peer tutoring staff, there's
>a training course that students first have to enroll in for a
>semester, and we interview applicants to select the group that seems
>most appropriate. Part of the selection process is an interview in
>which I and several of the peer tutors meet with three or four
>applicants at a time. We chat with the applicants for a bit and then
>let them work as a group to talk about a paper they've been given in
>advance. We watch their group skills, listening skills, approaches to
>working with the student who wrote the paper, etc. After each group
>interview, the tutors and I talk about the group and do a first
>selection as to who from that group might be invited to enroll in the
>class. We almost always are in total agreement about the
>applicants...  until yesterday.....
>
>One of the applicants is 15 (!!!!!). During the group interview, we
>thought her comments were insightful, and she seemed attentive to
>others, interested in their contributions, listened well, etc. So,
>while some of us didn't know her age (and I was sitting there thinking
>that undergrads are getting to look like infants...and feeling very,
>very old), two of the peer tutors did (as they've been in classes with
>her). After the interview, as things were breaking up, the girl asked
>if peer tutors are paid, and when we said yes, she said that this
>might be a problem if she's selected as she is only 15. Several of us
>sort tried to swallow our amazement and deal with the question while
>the two peer tutors who knew her seemed really turned off by
>that.Afterwards, during our assessment, those two tutors said they're
>in classes with her and disgusted by her incessant need to let
>everyone know how brilliant she is, how she skipped 7th, 9th, 11th,
>and 12th grade, etc.
>
>OK, finally (if you're still with me), we had a major sticking
>point. Several of us think she could make it as a tutor (with
>reservations about how she'd work with older students), but the others
>are drawing on classroom experiences, noting that she was restraining
>herself in the interview. So, what would you do? Select her for the
>class? (Being in the class doesn't guarantee being selected for the
>peer tutoring staff, but it's a small class and one inappropriate
>person could disrupt the group dynamic...a lot.) Wait for her to grow
>up a bit? See the class as a place to help her mature and learn a bit
>about how to collaborate? Rely on her demonstrated skills in the
>interview and conclude that she might be a great tutor..after a
>semester in the class?  
>
>Any advice would really be appreciated.
>-- 
>Mickey Harris
>harrism@omni.cc.purdue.edu
>
>