To provide academic support to students and foster a more collaborative learning environment, YHS is bringing back its peer tutor program! Tutoring will be available starting next semester and open to students of all grade levels. As for the tutors, they will be hand-selected by the student services department from the junior and senior classes. Tutors must be academically qualified and demonstrate an aptitude for helping others. Applications are open now for upperclassmen to fill out, so make sure to get those in to have the chance to become a YHS peer tutor during a free study hall. Through offering peer tutoring, YHS aims to connect students with personalized academic help from upperclassmen who have gone through the same difficulties and know what it’s like to struggle.
Tutoring subjects range from math to foreign languages, with each peer tutor specializing in different areas. For example, one peer tutor might be more dedicated to math and science help whereas another peer tutor might be geared more towards English and history help. Nonetheless, anyone who shows up to the tutoring center is bound to find someone to assist them. The way it works is that peer tutors rotate in and out of the room according to their free blocks, lunches, and class schedules. During their study halls, they are expected to provide their full attention to students in need. So, when someone shows up, any of the peer tutors in the room should be apt to help. While peer tutoring raises many advantages for students, it also raises questions about why YHS has chosen to pursue peer tutoring over bringing back PIE time.
About two years ago, YHS instituted its math center for students in Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II. This was to provide additional math help to students seeking to understand concepts or deepen their knowledge. The program proved successful, and even had an upgrade this year to expand into the dill lab. However, the need for math help could not simply be satiated by one math tutor. This is where PIE time came in. During Tudesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, students could sign up to go to any teacher they wanted to receive help, catch up on work, or take tests that they missed. However, in the absence of PIE, it has become increasingly difficult for students to get what they need from class or catch up on what they missed. Thus, with so much turmoil and a lack of help, YHS has opted for a peer tutor program.
From my perspective, the peer tutor program sounds like a great idea. In fact, an invaluable student resource. However, who’s to say that anyone who shows up to the tutoring center will be able to get what they need. To what extent are students qualified to educate students? Rather, shouldn’t it be teachers educating students? Of course, there is an elegant solution to all of this: bring back PIE time. However, PIE raises its own issues as well, such as attendance. To solve the issue of attendance, we all must do better. This means that students need to be proactive about signing up for where they want to go and teachers need to take attendance diligently every PIE session. For those students who are unaccounted for, they should be expected to return to their prides to be marked as present. In an ideal world, this all sounds like it could work. Yes, it really could! But, the administration has made their stance known on PIE time.
So, we are left with peer tutoring. I believe peer tutoring has the potential to really make a difference in the school community and connect students across all grade levels to one another. It is likely that anyone who applies to become a peer tutor truly seeks to help others academically and is invested in others’ success. Yet, with the absence of PIE, it may be challenging to align peer tutors’ schedules with students’ schedules so that it all works out. Additionally, only having peer tutors as an academic resource could leave holes in students’ understanding of concepts. While the peer tutoring program raises many disadvantages to PIE, it is ultimately a win because it will connect students to much needed academic help.
*Opinion pieces represent the thoughts of the writer and do not represent an endorsement of any particular position by this publication.
