What really impressed

I am, as a teacher, always endless impressed by the sheer pluck and commitment of most my pupils. Oh you get some who are time waisting, but very very few. Most do actually want do well, and it is one job as a maths tutor to make sure they do (and know they can). More than that it is also part of the job to nurture this desire, and make it matter, in the face of natural laziness, but also, even more of school expectation.
This desire to achieve is sometimes (well, to be honest in the maths tutors world, it is often), frankly in spite of their school's expectation of what they can do, and were they have been set in class. An expectation that of course a self fulfilling prophecy. For most schools only teaches the full syllabus to those it thinks are up to it, and the rest are often taught much less (so they can only get a C), - and what is more many of my pupils (and their parents) have not been told this fact. One of the jobs of the maths tutor is therefore to tell them this, and see what they want to do. At this point pupils face a simple choice: Do they want to achieve what the school expects or do better? And if they want to do better (and they all want to), are they going to work hard enough to ensure that they will get where they want to be? And what so impresses me about my pupils is that they not only want to do better that they are meant to, but, if suitably inspired, will work hard to do so.
It is my job therefore to ensure that this work makes the difference, and that they can really get where they want to be. It is this aspect of maths tutoring that I love, and that keeps me teaching, and keeps me inspired.