BY BRADY RHOADES: So I’ve taken up tutoring on the side.<\/p>\n

It’s more of a hobby than a gig. Also, I wanted to work with underprivileged children.<\/p>\n

It’s been more than 20 years since I worked as the coordinator for the Los Alamitos Youth Center, and I miss the interaction with kids.<\/p>\n

My first student attends elementary school in Garden Grove. He’s a polite, sweet 10-year-old boy who loves baseball and soccer. He’s struggling with his reading and writing but he’s smart and willing to work, so we’ll get him on track.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BY BRADY RHOADES: So I’ve taken up tutoring on the side.<\/p>\n

It’s more of a hobby than a gig. Also, I wanted to work with underprivileged children.<\/p>\n

It’s been more than 20 years since I worked as the coordinator for the Los Alamitos Youth Center, and I miss the interaction with kids.<\/p>\n

My first student attends elementary school in Garden Grove. He’s a polite, sweet 10-year-old boy who loves baseball and soccer. He’s struggling with his reading and writing but he’s smart and willing to work, so we’ll get him on track.<\/p>\n

I meet with him once a week for two hours, at his kitchen table. His parents are immigrants. Family folk. People of faith. Hard working and just plain decent.<\/p>\n

At any rate, it’s a joy, something I look forward to, but I guess what I’m getting at is how the experience has heightened my appreciation for educators.<\/p>\n

I’m not a scholar.<\/p>\n

I’m not  a dean or principal or teacher.<\/p>\n

But I’m getting a faint idea of the challenges those on the front line – teachers and teachers’ assistants – face.<\/p>\n

What do you do when your student doesn’t have the proper tools?<\/p>\n

Who would have known how much time and thought it takes to create a lesson plan for one student?<\/p>\n

How do you muster the patience and persistence it takes when the overactive mind of a child begins to wander?<\/p>\n

To emphasize: I’m tutoring one boy for two hours a week.<\/p>\n

Teachers deal with 25 to 40 students in a classroom for 40 hours a week.<\/p>\n

Then there are meetings.<\/p>\n

And lesson plans.<\/p>\n

And grading homework and tests.<\/p>\n

All for a modest income.<\/p>\n

The Garden Grove Unified School District is one of the largest and best in the county. Despite many challenges, it regularly wins awards, sports high graduation rates and prepares a good amount of students for their college lives.<\/p>\n

Our schools are our children’s second homes.<\/p>\n

So hats off to all you underpaid, underappreciated teachers out there.<\/p>\n

Brady Rhoades is the editor. He can be reached at brhoades@localnewspapers.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY BRADY RHOADES: So I’ve taken up tutoring on the side. It’s more of a hobby than a gig. Also, I wanted to work with underprivileged children. It’s been more than 20 years since I worked as the coordinator for the Los Alamitos Youth Center, and I miss the interaction with kids. My first student […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4751,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions\/4751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}