Tutoring Really Is The Quintessential Algebra 2 Helper

For many high school students, Math doesn’t come easy. For a vast number of them, the success they experienced in middle school math soon fades as they enter high school. Many students can get by with the traditional classroom instruction of the teacher, but many more need much more private and individualized help as they tackle more complex Math courses. This is why many school districts, particularly the larger ones, will offer Basic Algebra and Pre-Algebra before they offer the Algebra I course. It really is a progressive process. It really seems like building math skills is like building a home.
Building Math success is like building a home. The basic foundation of a home must be laid solidly in order for the upper stories to be stable and secure. If the foundation of a home is not solid, the walls of the main floors and upper floors will be weak and may crumble. This is true for Math development as well. The basic foundations of math really begin in grade school. Every hear someone say, “I was terrible in Math because I had a bad teacher”. Well, although not totally true, the enthusiasm and patience of a great teacher can never be underestimated when it comes to student success. That elementary Math student who builds the basic skills to perform Math strategies well builds the foundation of confidence and great self-esteem needed for those “upper floors” of Math, like Algebra and Algebra 2. I never had an early solid Math foundation. While I cannot fairly blame the Math teachers I had in grammar school, I certainly did not build the confidence I needed for the more difficult Math courses in high school. Sometimes that foundation needs some extra contractors to make the Math home strong. This is where a tutor comes in.
Tutoring programs can assist the classroom teacher in providing needed one to one help for the struggling Math student. Maybe that student is building his Math home with the wrong tools. The Math tutor can help the student use the right tools, particularly when it come to Algebra, a place where someone the student’s resources start to crumble. Teachers can’t do it all. While there are some teachers out there not supportive of private tutoring because they may feel “threatened” by having someone else teach them, many teachers welcome the one to one support a tutor can give a student. The good teachers know they have limitations to the individual instruction they wish they could give the struggling student. By the time the student who understands Algebra I well grasps the basic concepts, when he takes Algebra 2, it starts kicking his butt.
Thus, tutoring can be the quintessential Algebra 2 helper. If the lower levels of the “Math house” required more individualized help as the concepts became more difficult, certainly by the time the student gets to Algebra 2 he needs the aid of a private tutor. Getting that aid can really mean the difference between a Math house built on unstable ground and one that turns into a real mansion.