I have spent the past 9 hours tutoring a friend of mine in my Programming class. My patience has been tested. My tongue has permanent teeth marks and I’m quite sure that this grimace will be etched on my face for all eternity.
I love my buddy, M. I started tutoring him in our first computer class at the behest of the instructor, who feared that she would have to fail him. He’s a bit hard headed…and still believes that playing every computer game known to man qualifies him as an expert in computers…but I love his enthusiasm just the same.
Most of the time.
M has no programming experience at all…he’s never even built a webpage. I finally realized today that’s where the problem lies. This is a lower level course that we’re taking together, but I have difficulty imagining how hard it must be for someone who doesn’t even know what code looks like. I’m no expert…I’ve done a bit of web programming and I’m familiar with several web-based languages. I’ve never done any software programming, but I realize that all programming follows basic universal rules…I CAN see the forest through the trees…whereas M can’t.
He was kind of getting down on himself about not picking up on the material quickly enough, so I called it a day and told him to come back next Saturday. Between now and then, I need to find a way to explain the material and find a way to get him to relate it to something he’s familiar with.
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