Academic Tutoring

Our tutoring method has evolved over 25 years. We started out teaching individual students and over time began to train tutors to teach even more students. Our method is deeply rooted in the belief that learning should be fun. Most of our students believe their time spent with us was successful; they believe that they have learned new ways to approach challenges and this gives them confidence.

Nothing makes a tutor’s job more rewarding than seeing a look of great relief spread over a student’s face. “Ahh, I get it!” is the expression that makes our day. Why doesn’t this moment happen more often in schools? The answer boils down to math: with anywhere from 15 to 35 students in a class, a teacher cannot address each student’s learning style. There just isn’t time. But good tutors know that it’s their

job, not your child’s, to translate difficult material into whatever form is easiest for your child to understand. We train our tutors — fun, relaxed, college graduates — to alter their methods accordingly. So whether your child needs academic help, test preparation or general damage control, those, “Ahh, I get it!” moments will surely come.

Teaching a student a particular subject is quite similar to teaching a tutor how to teach that subject. Both involve helping someone learn how to do something in a flexible, confident manner. Many people think tutoring is an interim job, but people who come to work at the Brooklyn Learning Center tend to make a career out of it. BLC-trained tutors have started tutoring centers in Manhattan, Texas, and Connecticut, and we hope more will come soon. Just as our tutors decide to stick with this learning and teaching thing, so too, do our students.

Having trained students and teachers over the years through intuition and intelligence, it is hard to formalize our method, but there are some key elements that are rooted in our overarching academic tutoring philosophy. Students should feel good when they are at the Brooklyn Learning Center. There is no point in feeling bad. Many students come because when they ask their parents for help or when their parents insist on helping, the “homework wars” erupt. Recreating this experience is not the goal. We know that if we are patient, encouraging and available, even the most resistant student will eventually ask for help with something. And when they get help from us that is useful, we are off and running! Nothing improves motivation more than success.