About the Author
I think every writer knows this is the hardest part of the book to write. Writers like myself wonder if it is even necessary to write. What’s the point? Who does it help? It makes the book too much about me when this book is more about you—what youcan do. What you can change. How you can make your life less stressful.
With that challenge ahead of me, I found a creative solution. I wrote part of this, and my friend of 30-plus years wrote the other half. Greg has been a friend since my days at Ohio University. He is also the editor of this book. Greg was also one of the people who told me I was on to something bigger than I realized.
My background with education starts with my grandmother. She was one of the first female educators in the state of Indiana. This was a time when women were not teachers. She was a fighter not just outside, but inside the family. She was this unique combination of nasty, mean, focused and encouraging. She sent three boys to WWII. All of them came back alive. That was a rare feat. I remember my uncles talking about this one day, and I mentioned with all of my ten-year-old wisdom, “I think God was too afraid of what Grandma would have done if one of you died.”
I was smart in school and got good grades. However, if you were a teacher who bored me or just phoned it in, then I was your nightmare student. If you were an awesome teacher, then I was helpful. To me it was simple: If you are going to make me lose the vast majority of my day when I could be playing, then you better damn well teach me something.
Sure, I was a little angry. I had a lot of challenging things going on in my house during those days. I certainly did not want more challenges at school. Math was one of my strengths, and I tried to hide it because I was certain it meant social death. In high school I was an honor roll student who really did not like all the attention. In college my desire was to be an average student. I was more focused on what I would do in my life after school. That life was fun.
I came to tutoring through a combination of events. For a few years in Hawaii, I taught children improvisational acting. One class had a child for each age from 4 to 17. Each week my assistant, Mapuana, and I would get the children to all work together for two full hours. Parents would tell me it changed their children and was one of the only things they looked forward to doing.
Not long after, I was looking for something to do that had nothing to do with the entertainment industry (the bulk of my background to that point), had purpose, was fun, and was rewarding financially, emotionally and spiritually. One day I just threw up a simple prayer to the universe, “God, what would I do if I did nothing in the entertainment industry?” Immediately there was an answer—tutoring.
The answer was so odd. It hit me solidly in the middle of the chest, so I knew it was not coming from me. I posted an ad on craigslist for math tutoring. Within an hour I got a call from my first official client and now friend, Leah. She had three children who all needed test prep. One was in grade school and two in middle school. I took the information and the final question to the mom was, “What do you do for a living?”
Her reply was, “I’m a headhunter for entertainment industry jobs.” I hung up the phone and laughed. After that first session, I made a commitment to tutoring. This was towards the end of the school year. I started to work with all types of children. I did group “pay what you can afford” sessions for financially challenged children, I tutored a child from a rock band on a tour bus, and I helped children of illegal immigrants.
The school year started, and within a few weeks I was working part time and making a nice living. A few months later, the parents were so satisfied, they referred people to me until my time was sold out. That was when I started writing this book. I saw all the issues within the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) public system and the Los Angeles private school challenges. I was also able to see the challenge on a statewide level.
Here was an interesting fact: my business had a waiting list. What was I doing right? How was I doing it? How could I show others to do this process? That was when I started writing this book.
The year was near its end, and I knew I would need to find some additional tutors for the next school year. That summer, an opportunity came along to tutor a child in a foreign country. The parents and children who had already booked me for the next school year were extremely supportive and encouraged me to pursue the opportunity. Fortunately, Amy had watched me tutor for nearly a year straight and was willing to cover anything for me while I was out of the country.
On my travels with this amazing, down-to-earth family, the book started to change. While visiting England, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Malaysia, Bali and Thailand, I realized that this education challenge for parents was not just a Los Angeles, California or United States challenge. This is a worldwide issue, and maybe one of the biggest challenges we face in this century.
The issue is simple within the United States: Over-testing creates an environment where children either get anxiety or detach. The pressure of testing is so toxic that it plays a role in child depression and, in extreme cases, suicide. Imagine a situation so hopeless that a child takes a life before it even starts. That is how serious, intense, tragic and insane this pressure to prove our children know things has become. The school system is now the bully.
The goals set by the education system are not even achievable or based in any form of logic. What they want is statistically impossible. They want 100% of their students scoring greater than 75% all the time, without providing teachers and students with proper resources. My grandfather was a farmer. This would be like asking him to plant corn but only providing him a lake.
Internationally, the challenge is English. Too many children are placed in English as a first language when it is not spoken in their homes. Children should be placed in English as a second language courses if their primary language is not English. Children who live in a home but outside of their country, and whose parents speak English at home, should be in first language classes.
Tutoring children and helping parents has changed my life and given me a clear focus and purpose beyond my wildest dreams. I hope this book relieves your stress.
Enough from me. Now, let’s hear Greg’s side of the story. It is probably a hell of a lot more clear than mine.
First, a note about my friend and this book’s author. Roger has been a part of my support system and a close friend since our first meeting at Ohio University. It was one of those instances the universe gives us on occasion, where we feel as if we just met an old friend for the first time. My life has been, is, and will continue to be a better place for having Roger’s friendship and counsel.
What has been thrilling to discover in the development of this book, this project and these initial steps to a long-needed approach to education are the similarities in educational philosophies between Roger and me. We see the problems, challenges and solutions from similar perspectives, and the elements of our approaches dovetail into a cohesive approach to learning. The addition of Amy to our team has further broadened and solidified the tenets of Homework Sanity.
As in Roger’s comments, I doubt there is much value in the details and minutiae of my background. This book, the underlying principles and their benefit to you are where the importance lies. On the other hand, you do have a right to know the validating elements of the source of the information contained in our approach. To that end, let me try to combine validation with brevity.
I too have enjoyed a long and successful career in the film and entertainment industries. Throughout those years, I was also teaching, tutoring, mentoring and generally working to pass along factual information as well as hard-earned lessons. The more time I spent at the front of college classrooms, the more patterns I recognized in terms of challenges to learning, acquiring skills and knowledge, and succeeding.
Student outcomes and end-of-term surveys indicate a success to my approach. In a world absorbed in the readily available factual knowledge of the Internet, blogging, texting, surfing and other information highways and backroads of this culture, my focus has always been never