My Experience as a Tutor

Sarah Bahn, Invest in Youth Tutor

On the surface, Bailey Gatzert Elementary looks like any other primary school. As the bell rings at 3:30 p.m., the halls buzz with students screaming and laughing as they run outside to meet their parents. Nestled between the international and central districts just blocks away from Seattle University, Bailey Gatzert is one of the most diverse schools in Seattle. From the second I walked into the school, it was clear that Gatzert is the perfect example of the “melting pot” that is the United States. With only about five percent of the students being white, any Mercer Island students visiting Gatzert are in for an eye-opening experience.

Mercer Islanders are accustomed to a school that is primarily white, with some Asians and the occasional African American or Hispanic student. Bailey Gatzert is a different story. About half of the students are African American, and Asians and Latinos make up a huge percentage of the school. Even Native Americans are represented fairly well at Gatzert. Gatzert’s ethnic diversity brings both benefits as well as some major issues. It is incredibly important for young people to be exposed to many cultures and religions, which unfortunately is something that we lack here at MIHS. With a very culturally homogenous environment on Mercer Island, sometimes students are sheltered from the diversity that is just miles away in Seattle. However, many of the children at Bailey Gatzert have parents who are first generation immigrants from Asia, Africa, and several other foreign countries. Many of these families have recently immigrated and do not speak English at home, which makes it difficult for children to learn to read and speak English well. School is the only time that these kids are exposed to English and are able to work on linguistic skills.

As a result of the language barrier, Bailey Gatzert has incredibly low standardized test scores. For the math, science and reading WASL, less than 50 percent of fifth graders are meeting the state standard. Even in comparison to other Washington state public schools, Bailey Gatzert has dramatically low test scores.

Even at a struggling school like Bailey Gatzert, there are organizations determined to help. Invest in Youth is a Seattle-based organization that aims to bridge the language barrier for elementary students and provide one-on-one tutoring for children to improve reading and writing skills. When a volunteer tutor signs up with Invest in Youth, they are paired with a third grade student, and remain with the same student for the entire year. Both students and tutors benefit from the one-on-one experience of seeing the same person every week for a year and learning together. Students love to build close relationships with their tutors and (almost) all of the students look forward to their tutoring every week. For children who speak a different language at home, Invest in Youth is a great time to practice speaking, reading and writing with an adult or teenage tutor.

Tutors also benefit greatly from the experience that Invest in Youth gives. Just like students, tutors come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Many of the tutors are students at Seattle University, while some are adults who leave their job once a week to tutor, and others are high school students or retired grandparents. It is an incredibly rewarding experience for tutors to watch their student learn and improve throughout the year. Nothing can compare to building a personal relationship with a child and knowing that your effort contributed to their success.

The first time I walked into Bailey Gatzert, I knew I was a long way from home. All around me I saw dozens of cultures being represented. Every week I see African mothers in long tribal skirts speaking Somali to their children, Chinese businessmen chattering on cell phones and Muslim families with five-year-old girls covered in headscarves.

Since September, I have been meeting with a third grade girl named Nhu-Phuong once a week, watching her learn and grow as both a student and a person. Nhu-Phuong lives with her father and speaks Vietnamese at home. Like most students at Bailey Gatzert, Nhu-Phuong receives free of reduced lunch every day, as well as a free snack on the days when she comes to Invest in Youth.

One side of Nhu-Phuong is as a struggling student. I see her falling into typical Asian stereotypes, such as forgetting to pronounce the S’s on the ends of words. She has a shockingly low vocabulary, even for a third grader. Sometimes as we are reading a book, I will ask her if she knows what a certain word means, and she almost never does. Many times this lack of understanding is simply a result of cultural differences. A child with first-generation Vietnamese parents cannot be expected to understand the rules of baseball or the vocabulary associated with an ecosystem. However, even though Nhu-Phuong has many obstacles to overcome, throughout the year she and I have worked together to improve these language skills. To solve the problem of dropping her S’s, we came up with a bet. She would start with a couple of stickers, and every time she dropped and S, she would get a tally mark. Three tally marks in one day results in the loss of one sticker. The impact of this deal was astounding. The second stickers were in the picture, Nhu-Phuong’s focus went way up, and immediately she stopped dropping the S’s. Just a little motivation helped her to improve her speaking skills, and hopefully this lesson is something she will never forget. Once I saw Nhu-Phuong’s struggle with vocabulary, we came up with a plan to improve this as well. Each week, we choose a new vocabulary word from the book we read. Nhu-Phuong writes down the word, definition, and uses it in a sentence. If she can remember the word the next week, she gets stickers or a silly band. Slowly but surely, this system is expanding her vocabulary.

Another side of Nhu-Phuong is her Vietnamese heritage. Having international influence at home has expanded Nhu-Phuong’s knowledge of the world, and she often finds way to incorporate this part of her life into new things we are learning. Tutoring is a mix of focus and academics as well as building a personal relationship with the student. Nhu-Phuong loves to show me how to write our names in Vietnamese or say different words. She’ll often see things in the books we read and relate them back to Vietnam. This combination of cultures is one of the great things about a school like Bailey Gatzert.

The last side of Nhu-Phuong I see is a fun-loving, silly, third grade girl. Looking past her international background and her struggles in school, there is a funny, bubbly kid who loves attention. Getting the opportunity to get to know this little girl is what makes volunteering worth it. This experience is really life changing and is something I hope to continue throughout high school.