COACHING and tutoring/counseling for Your Student-Children

“Andrew just likes to meet with you.”  Allison, a mom from Old Lyme noted as she was explained as he had already finished high school but he wanted to meet before college started.  “He just wants to discuss a few things with you.  He’s probably nervous about moving away but feels weird talking to us or his friends about it.”   She was right.  Andrew came in and we had a great conversation about the starting over, meeting new people, self-discipline and moving away from home.  And he – like most teens – had no one to discuss these issues with.

Parents these days are closer with their teens that days of old. But there are still areas that teens would rather not discuss with their parents.  Or they don’t want to discuss fully.  In addition, parents, even the wise ones, are still “just my parents”, and advice from the wise outsider (even if the same advice!) seems to hit differently.

The number of parents who have called, particularly in recent years, to exclaim how delighted they were that I (or other Learning Consultants tutor/counselors – COACHES – such as Jean Card and Jesse Brockwell) said something that they had been trying for years to imprint on their teen has risen steadily over the years.

We are now in an odd society where the “village” consists of home, peer group, and the Internet (broadly) or more specifically, social media.  I am not so sure that the village ever was that great but I know that prior generations relied on grandparents/uncles/aunts/coaches/clergy/troop leaders/town elders in ways that are completely foreign to most of Gen Z.

We often fill that role.  We do so in the guise of tutoring or test prep or college counseling.  These are all tangible items that will get your children to our offices.  The benefits of coaching in a deeper sense seems to have lasting impacts that neither student nor parent expected when creating our initial relationship.

Andrew, cited above, is one of my favorite students but far from unique is his relationship with me.  There are now several dozen young adults who still touch base with me formally or informally.  I’ll remove false modesty and know that my 20 plus years of experience give me an advantage in forming these mentor-mentee relationships.  But I also know that there are few other adults in the lives of young people.  And, maybe I’m better than the Internet 🙂