Re: selecting tutors

[nvas for mapping and presenting myself and my <skimball@uts.cc.utexas.edu>]

On Fri, 21 Mar 1997, Muriel Harris wrote:

> 
> > 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?
> > Julie 
> > 
> 
> 
> Julie, at first, we thought that your suggestion is the ideal
> solution...until we looked at her application. The kid (and I DO mean
> kid) is a sophomore! She's speeding through college too, and that's a
> concern for us. Shouldn't someone, somewhere, slow her down and let
> her see there's more to acquiring an education than zooming through
> classes. By the way, she's an English/Linguistics major who plans to
> be a college professor...yet another reason to try to help her?

*sigh*  I bet she's a theoretical syntactician too.  They take the fast
track. Convince her to do Indo-European, so she has to study Sanskrit and
stuff for years on end.  Getting a degree in Indo-European linguistics
will also moot the whole question of any further employment ;-)  

In less cyncial mode, maybe her interest in language is a hook in to being
a tutor in North's participant-observer mode.  Maybe it's possible to
convince her that quiet observation and really knowing your data (i.e.
getting to understand the situation from the student writer's point of
view) are the key to the deepest and best sorts of understanding.  

Sara Kimball