Tutors from England are often called in by parents when teenagers’ performance has been deemed unsatisfactory at school. In fact there is nothing wrong with their intelligence or work ethic. It is just that they are terrified of their mother or father or both and not satisfying their wildly over-optimistic aspirations for their child who gets into a blue funk and his work suffers at school. 

It is not a situation that a tutor finds easy to solve, but Tutors from England have had great success in building up the confidence of teenagers which has been sapped by the constant criticisms of their work by their mother – nothing is ever good enough. The parent is convinced their child is exceptionally bright and just not trying hard enough. They are stepping in with their opinions and corrections before the child even has a chance to begin a project. When their over-expectations meet reality, the child is bound to freeze in his efforts and disappoint his parents. Parents instead of encouraging their children are making them feel like failures, spiralling into feelings of doom.

By building up the child’s self-confidence the tutor is able to persuade the child that there is nothing wrong with his or her school work – it is just that nothing satisfied their mother. They had never got praise when they did good work – their mother always expected more. By coaching the child and remaining at his side as support, the tutor gains the child's confidence and the child relaxes his tensions around his school work and can concentrate without worrying about the outcome of his efforts.

Tutors from England have persuaded such children that their school work is actually improving and that they can be proud of it. Immediately their grades improve because they do not live in constant fear of upsetting their mother or father.

Read an example about  Tutoring a "Genius" in our Tutor Talks..