Then:  9 + 7 = ????

It took me, what? 15 seconds? 30 seconds? 3 minutes?. It was fascinating how my subconscious grasped the answer, but then it took 1/4 second to 2 seconds for me to identify explicitly the pattern needed to get the answer and to put the answer into words.

(HT: my brother)

Image from the Art Renewal Center.

Then one hour tutoring a student in geometry — specifically, in the Pythagorean Theorem and similar right triangles. And, wow, what I was able to relate these things to: reasoning, logic, science, law, history, and more. All in an effective, relevant way, using concretized abstractions. And all in a way that, too, will be found only rarely. Unfortunately.

Next up: helping some people with a dead battery, after I did a 10 PM shopping stint at my local HEB. They just needed jumper cables; they already had a big truck to give them a jump. I liked the look in the husband’s eye and the strength of his handshake. It’s nice to help people who are good (well…who seem decent, as that is all I really know about them).

And then, to my surprise, and pleasure, someone asked, while I was waiting at a stop light on the way home from HEB, if I tutored for the SAT. (She saw my “MGTutoring” graphics on the back of my truck.) I had a flier with me in my briefcase, so I got out of my truck and gave it to her husband. I liked seeing the gleam in his eye and the smile on his face when I handed the flier over. Priceless.

This past Saturday, for example, I taught two hours of calculus and two hours of TAKS math. (An unusually light day, thank goodness! A break! Yay! I got to sleep till 10 AM!! I so needed that.)

But Sunday started at 8:20 AM and was not over until I made it back home after 10 PM. The day was comprised of two+ hours of algebra 2, an hour and a half of algebra 1, an hour of geometry, two other classes for two hours, then two hours of TAKS math.

And Monday was a long day spent tutoring math for ten hours: the day started at 8:15 AM and did not end until 10:20 PM, with some of this time spent on the road, and some spent at home tutoring on the Internet. First thing up was a math marathon at 9 AM, doing 5 hours of college algebra, all with one student; then two hours of TAKS math with another student; then an hour of algebra with a third; and finally two hours of AP calculus to finish my day. Monday, like Saturday and Sunday, was also spent teaching students reasoning and logic. We focused heavily on math, of course, but ranged from there to important, essential connections concerning (depending on the student and what time allowed) thinking skills, note taking skills, logic, Socratic questioning, ancient Greece, Aristotle, Plato, deduction, induction, science, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, nutrition, and more. Students saw — in general terms and in particular detail — how not merely to do math but how to reason; they learned how math teaches reasoning; they saw how math applies to other areas of life; and they saw the importance of math and of ideas. They are getting a quality education like they will rarely or never find anywhere else. And I love it.

Image from the Art Renewal Center.

Image from the Art Renewal Center

–Thomas Jefferson (letter to James Smith, 1822. ME 15:409)

Personal software tutoring via Internet phone

Expert hands-on tutoring in Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and other graphics stuff

I like to teach. I am, in fact, a damn good teacher. And I love talking about and demonstrating graphics software and graphics techniques. Therefore, I have decided to offer private tutoring sessions by phone in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, XaraX and various graphics subjects. I have conducted such phone tutoring sessions with several people, and it works really well.

You — the student — and I will work on the same image or project in the software of your choice, for instant back-and-forth feedback. If you are online during the tutorial (recommend) we can easily send each other files while we talk.

The Awesome Deal

I charge $30 per 60-minute hour (phoning included) — which is a great bargain, if I may say so myself. I guarantee that you will learn a lot in just one hour. In fact, I am so confident you will be happy with our tutoring sessions that I offer a full money-back guarantee: I’ll refund your money without question if you tell me it wasn’t worth it — or give you some extra time for free, to “fill in the blanks”.

Am I legally required to say I did not, am not now, and will not in the future, benefit financially in any way from this recommendation: no stocks, bonds, money, Monopoly money, gold, silver, jewelry, diamonds, rubies, pirate treasure, books, old wadded up paper or gum wrappers, pencils, certificates, awards or anything else of a material, or spiritual, sort?

Update (2-16-10, 8:15 AM): Corrected a typo: I had written “an” instead of “am” in the last sentence.

Image from the Art Renewal Center