Why a quiet tutorial is not the best bet for students
November 1, 2018
At South, a tutorial is very similar to a study hall. In my experience, students use it to do homework or just relax on their phones. Teachers can allow students to socialize or not— it’s entirely to their discretion. I believe having a loud tutorial is more productive because in nearly every class you have the opportunity to socialize with classmates.
In a tutorial, you’re able to do whatever activity you choose— why wouldn’t this include talking to friends in the class. Now, this is not discouraged by every teacher especially if it has to do with school. It seems hypocritical for teachers, of all people, to discourage talking about school work while they work.
In a tutorial, you’re encouraged to work on homework or other assignments, but this plan does have complications. What do you do if you are in an English teachers’ tutorial, but you have math questions? The only rational solution is to talk to those around you, but if your teacher won’t allow this, then your math grade will suffer.
Another strange tutorial occurrence is when teachers enforce a seating chart. I don’t understand why you would need a seating chart in a class where you don’t actually teach the students anything. It’s annoying for students because it makes interacting with their friends harder than it should be.
According to an article in the Connecticut Post, being social during your work and with your friends creates a more productive study environment. With this in mind, I don’t really understand why teachers enforce it so much—tutorial is the only truly ‘easy’ class in a student’s schedule, so they should be allowed to talk to each other.