Re:RE: An LD Student Who Needs a "Scribe"

[William Macauley <macauley@calumet.purdue.edu>]

I hope no one minds my jumping in here. I took this issue a step further last
year. A woman with LDs was recommended to me as a writing tutor. I was
shorthanded and it was the first few weeks of my new job. I thought that, since
diversity is a good idea in terms of cultural/ethnic/racial backgrounds, it
might be important in terms of LDs. 

I hoped that her sensitivity to LD problems might make the writing center more
user friendly for people with disabilities. I also thought it was a good idea
because of the reputation of the senior faculty member who recommended her and
her working as a stringer for a local paper. I looked over her writing sample,
which was very well written, and decided to hire her without a formal interview
(I had spoken to her on the phone twice).

Much later, after a lot of struggle, two disasterous weeks of tutoring, and
another two full months of training without actually tutoring (I gave her the
option of watching other tutors until she felt like she could tutor again - and
she took me up on it), I decided that she just couldn't handle it and I couldn't
afford to wait. So, I had to fire her.

Her particular disorder calls for a great deal of structure; she wanted to make
lists of the steps she could use in tutorials and almost always went for
mechanical issues first (probably because they are very structured). When she
developed a list, she never departed from it no matter what was going on in the
session. I also found out later that the writing sample (a four-page essay on
manic-depression) was something that she worked on for several months, and with
a great deal of help from others. Eventually, I saw that she just couldn't "roll
with the punches," so to speak, and that is one of the most important
characteristics of a good tutor. I thought it was becoming cruel to keep her
here, thinking that at some point she would be a tutor.

Still, I am not dissuaded from the idea that people with disabilities belong
working as writing tutors, even if those disabilities call for significant
revisions of our practice. I also still believe that students with LDs would be
more likely to come to the writing center if there was someone here who could
relate to their disability issues (Please don't think that I lump all
disabilities in together or that I plan to hire tutors on the basis of
particular disabilities). But, just as a Mexican tutor might help Puerto Rican
or Cuban students feel more at ease, I thought the same might work with LDs.

BTW- Are there archives for this listserv somewhere?

Bill Macauley