It’s easy to assume that your child’s math teacher’s instruction is enough to help them develop all the skills they need to succeed in their current math class and move on to the next grade level. After all, they’re the expert, and your child spends hours in their classroom every week.
But what happens when the teacher’s support is not enough?
It’s not that the teacher doesn’t have your child’s best interest at heart or is unskilled. The fact of the matter is that teachers face a lot of demands, so they may not always have the time or resources to provide the individualized support your child needs to master all the math concepts required.
Even the most dedicated teachers can’t do it all. With large class sizes, diverse learning styles, and limited time, it’s impossible to give every student the personalized attention they need. As a former private school teacher, I’ve seen this firsthand, even with small class sizes of just two to seven students. Some students grasp concepts quickly, while others need lessons broken down further or explained in a different way.
While many teachers offer extra help before or after school or during lunch, these sessions often involve multiple students asking questions at the same time. And in just a few minutes of one-on-one time, there’s only so much ground a teacher can cover, especially if the student lacks the foundational skills needed to keep up.
Tutoring is uniquely responsive to a student’s needs. Unlike in a classroom, a tutor can provide real-time feedback and guidance tailored specifically to the student’s level of understanding. For example, as a tutor, I help students solve math problems step by step, constantly reinforcing behaviors, correcting errors, and explaining why a solution works. Over time, I gradually reduce my support as the student gains confidence and independence.
In contrast, classroom teachers often rely on general explanations or a single teaching method that may not resonate with every student. This isn’t a flaw in their teaching, but a reality of managing multiple learners at once. Tutoring ensures that the student gets the kind of constant, personalized support they need to truly master skills.
When I taught at a private school, I was covering for the main teacher, who was on maternity leave. The main teacher was still available online to assist, but I was the one in the classroom handling the teaching. In one of my math classes, there were two students: one strong in math and one struggling.
At the same time, I was managing another student in a different grade, learning a completely separate math curriculum in the same classroom. With classes only 40 minutes long, there was very little time to teach multiple methods of one concept, let alone manage two different courses simultaneously.
One day, I was teaching the concept of converting between degrees and radians. I used an explanation based on the idea of fractions of a circle: every half-circle equals π radians. Depending on the fraction of the circle you had, that determined how many π radians there were.
While this explanation worked for one student, the struggling student later told me that the main teacher’s formula-based method made much more sense to her.
As a tutor, I’ve often heard that I “explain things so much better than my classroom teacher!” because I can adjust my explanations to their learning level and take the time to help them truly understand.
What I’ve learned from this particular experience is not necessarily that my tutoring is better than their classroom teacher’s teaching, it’s that, with one-on-one attention, I can focus entirely on the explanation that makes the most sense to them. Classroom teachers simply don’t have that kind of time.
Sometimes, a teacher’s instruction is enough. But if your child continues to struggle despite their teacher’s efforts, tutoring could be the missing piece they need to thrive in math.
By providing personalized attention, constant reinforcement, and customized instruction, tutoring complements what happens in the classroom, and does not compete with it.
If you’re ready to see how tutoring can help your child succeed, don’t wait. Take the next step today.
