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[Lady Brown <ykflb@TTACS.TTU.EDU>]

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    http://www.ttu.edu/wcenter/

LFB



William Macauley wrote:

> 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


--
Lady Falls Brown, Ph. D.
Director, University Writing Center
http://english.ttu.edu/uwc/
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-3091
806-742-2476

WCENTER listowner
Ykflb@ttacs.ttu.edu