Did I Mention It Was Free?

Free Tutoring Program Going Unnoticed by RHS Students

Hayden Essley

We all have to overcome difficulties in life, physically or mentally. Some are more difficult than others, but most of the time there’s a solution. Here at Rocklin High, academic struggle is a big problem. Luckily, there’s a free solution on campus to help those in need; peer tutoring.

A free peer tutoring program is offered after school from Tuesday to Thursday, from 2:45 to 3:30 in the College and Career Center where you can go in and quietly work and get help from one of the other students at RHS. All the peer tutors are usually quite knowledgeable on all main topics; math, science, history, you name it.

Mrs. Amber Tillery, adviser for the program, says “The peer tutoring program was established way before I became the adviser for it, but I think it was established so that kids can come into a relaxed environment and work quietly among their peers and receive help from them as well.”

The problem with this program is that not many students utilize this resource. For the most part, the peer tutors just sit around doing homework or absolutely nothing at all. Students who are failing classes could easily go in for about an hour and receive the help they need.

“The reason that many kids don’t come in a lot of the time is for one, it’s after school, conflicting with things like clubs and sports, and another reason is a kind of ‘stigma’ surrounding the idea of getting a tutor. That’s why it’s a very casual environment, you can come in and work and get the help you need without being judged or labeled as ‘dumb’ because the kids around you are in the same boat as you” says Tillery.

So the real question is, what to do to remedy this problem? There are suggestions and things to do, like moving a tutoring session to the morning time or some more advertising on the morning announcements, but Tillery says, “I’m not sure what to really do with this situation, I’m sure if I brought some food it’d entice more people to come! But in all seriousness, I am open to any and all suggestions from anyone to help out as I want this to be the best it can be for the students here”.

Whether you need help or not, the College and Career Center, from Tuesdays-Thursdays after school is a great place to receive help from your fellow peers or just somewhere to quietly work on stuff, despite the low numbers of people showing up for it.