> A good tutor doesnt really teach new things. They pave the road already taught, critically filling in the potholes and removing the speed-bumps.

You've confused tutoring with remedial tutoring.

FWIW, when I was doing tutoring, which was not “remedial,” I found that my expectations of what was needed of me were kind of completely backwards, and what students actually needed could be better likened to athletic coaching. They needed

- a cheerleader who could celebrate success,

- a sounding board for “how could I do this better” when they brought it up,

- for me to back the fuck off when they don't, because however it makes sense in their head is valid even if it doesn't make sense in mine,

- someone who recognizes “come game-time (exams), I won't be in the room, so you'll have to be able to do this without me,” and thus focuses them on adequate results over and over again, “is this the right answer, can we check it quickly, can we see anything about it that makes us understand the problem in a simple way now” etc.

- and honestly just that “pairing pressure” to not fall behind, to keep skills in practice.

I found that “teaching new things” had to be confined to only like 10% of a given session, if that. The job really was “paving the road already taught,” except that's kind of not the right metaphor because roads are centrally planned e.g. by the teacher, it's more the road currently used, which corresponds often but not always to the road the teacher preferred to teach.

It sounds like the tutoring you were doing was supplemental to your students' primary source of education. That's probably mostly what the parent was referring to as remedial tutoring, as opposed to an education primarily delivered through tutoring.

good stuff, sounds smart, thanks for sharing. i'm going to be raising my boy in a pretty competitive school district and have been trying to come up with a plan for tutoring, definitely going to steal these ideas.

Yes, I picked up on that too. It's one of those phrases that sounds clever and insightful on first read, but you realize it's just incorrect if you think critically.

Actually, a tutor can be someone who plans and guides your learning process, as you described. But there is nothing to stop you as the student from inverting it, designing and planning your own leaning goals, and then going to a tutor for specific advice.

I do this for foreign languages. I plan out everything and my own syllabus and goals, and hire a tutor for speaking practice. I give instructions and context to the tutor so they can best help me.