# David Durlach **By David Durlach** --- ## Math & Physics Tutoring Attending to the entire person, not just the intellect [IMAGE: Header-Mobile-TypeOptimized-ProperCanvas.png] Focusing exclusively on intellectual understanding, while ignoring how the learner *feels* in connection with themselves and the process, is not just a sub-optimal teaching strategy, it is a violation of the edict *Primum non nocere* "First, do no harm." [IMAGE: Students in chairs. Teacher at Whiteboard] ### Important Update 2025: AI! Since I first posted this page, AI has "hit the scene". It has completely transformed what math/physics tutoring is — or at least, what in my opinion it most certainly should be. Specifically, my focus now is to empower the student to work effectively with AI to learn, explore ideas, get feedback on their errors, offer personalized emotional/cognitive insights that can help them study, and lots more. This is 1000x more valuable than simply teaching the math/physics concepts directly. "*Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.*" In practical terms, I can provide a path that in just a few sessions, will in most cases allow students to work with AI, low cost or free, to answer their questions independently at any hour of the day or night. To keep up with my thinking, writing, and experiments with AI, check out [AI Walk-And-Talk](https://daviddurlach.com/AIWalkAndTalk) and [AI Diaries](https://daviddurlach.com/AIDiaries). ### Experience I have been a Harvard Extension School part-time teaching assistant / [Math Question Center](https://extension.harvard.edu/for-students/support-and-services/math-question-center/) tutor for over 30 years, covering algebra through calculus. The sidebar includes several quotes and endorsements in connection with that work and from other contexts. Additionally, and related: - For a similar length of time, I have been building dancing artworks and educational interactive [STEM / STEAM / STREAM](https://carlyandadam.com/thecarlyandadam/stem-steam-or-stream-what-is-the-difference) exhibits for science museums worldwide, created within the context of my physics-art design workshop [TechnoFrolics](https://technofrolics.com). - You may find of interest a [video of a presentation I gave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsWa8grqoow&t=3s) at the 2013 Innovators to Educators conference. (You can find the talk's slide deck, less additional video clips, [here](DavidDurlach_ChildhoodAndTeachingPerspective_2013PresentationToCreativeEducationFoundation_1920x1080_2021-06-26.pdf).) ### Am I the right person for you / your child? #### My Perspective, Who I am, and What I Offer Several teaching perspectives are to me self-evident, yet, in aggregate, seem surprisingly rarely put into regular practice. My approach is based on the following beliefs: 1. To achieve deep understanding, long term success, and fulfillment generally, how one feels during the learning process typically matters at least as much, and usually more, than one's immediate intellectual grasp of a specific concept or topic area. 2. Given that the Internet currently provides excellent explanations of virtually every subject under the sun, a key role of a tutor is to listen deeply and: - Reflect the student back to themselves — help them understand who they are, how they think, what they like and care about, which ideas are clear and which are murky. - Help the student begin to notice their self talk — particularly if it's negative: "*I'm bad at math*", "*girls have a harder time with science than boys*", "*I don't want to seem like a nerd*". - Be sure the student has an a priori expectation that actually understanding, not just memorizing, is both reasonable and possible (for them) — and if that is not the case, work with them to develop that perspective. These are elements that the Internet cannot readily provide and that I offer. 3. It is as important to understand why incorrect answers are incorrect, as it is to understand why correct answers are correct. 4. I believe that providing the student tools for thinking generally is as, or more, important than teaching subject-matter-specific elements. I offer such conceptual frameworks whenever and wherever possible. 5. I am someone who virtually [never thinks anything is "obvious"](nothing-is-obvious/), and I thus do not have to "work" to remember that fact when interacting with someone for whom the material is new. 6. I believe it is the student's job to clearly articulate what they do not understand. To go from "*I have no idea what they are talking about or what to do.*" to (for example) "*I do not understand the meaning of ...*", "*I am confused about how ... relates to ...*", "*I am unsure if technique ... applies here because ....*". I will help the student develop that critical skill. 7. I feel that the student-teacher relationship is as important for learning as the quality of the technical explanations themselves. 8. I personally am significantly more engaged by art, dance, beauty, and connection, than either games or competition. I use my understanding of math, science, and engineering [to that end](https://technofrolics.com/). Should the learner have a similar orientation, and thus perhaps not be overly drawn to the ubiquitous robot "wars/games" or the like, my orientation may prove both connective and validating. 9. For more information about my approach to the world generally, please see my [guiding principles page](/writings/guiding-principles/). ##### Who I am not I don't: - Focus on rote memorization of formulas and repetitive "grilling and drilling". - Conceptually separate the "intellect" of the learner from vast and critically-important rest of him/her, and then attend almost exclusively to the former. - Simply provide solutions to problems, but rather, guide the student to discovering the solution for themselves. [IMAGE: WhoImNot-LongTitle.jpg] ### What you can expect for you / your child 1. Clear technical explanations, presented in as many different ways as possible, and as needed for deep understanding. 2. Empathy and support — both interpreted in the broadest sense. 3. Meta explanations: In other words, providing not only an explanation of the topic itself, but also an explanation of why I am teaching about it in the manner I am. 4. Humor and fun analogies. 5. If resources allow, I am also delighted to make custom illustrations, videos, physical demos, and more, to assist in the learning process. In summary, if I can *feel* what you / your child feels during the learning process there can be magic. If not, I can still be, and am happy to be, simply a technically competent "conventional" tutor. Addendum 2024: Due to the *incredible* educational utility of AI chatbots such as [ChatGPT 4o](https://openai.com/chatgpt/), [Claude 3.5 Sonnet](https://claude.ai), and [Perplexity](https://www.perplexity.ai/), helping students become familiar with how to use them, including understanding the AI's strengths and weaknesses, will be enthusiastically offered. ### Logistics and Free Evaluation - A 15-60 minute discussion and evaluation session is offered free of charge. - In general, as of this writing (it may change in the future), assume tutoring sessions are conducted remotely via a combination of Zoom, email, and phone. - Should you wish to discuss group vs. individual sessions, please [contact me](/about/contact/). - Individual rates are \$40-\$80 hour (\$60/hr typical), depending on such factors as frequency and duration of meeting, complexity of subject, and ability to pay. Preparatory time, if/as applicable, is billed at, at most, 1/2 the live-session rate. - Highly flexible schedule, allowing for students from other countries with different time zones. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (For schools and similar: A printable pdf 8.5x11 version of a tutoring info postcard may be found [here](David-Durlach-tutoring-postcard-8.5x11-printable.pdf). And a postcard which includes tutoring info, but also delightful squirrels, and nascent blog info, may be found [here](David-Durlach-tutoring-plus-postcard-8.5x11-printable.pdf). Alternatively, if you wish physical postcard(s) to be sent to you USPS, please [contact me](/about/contact/).) ### Endorsements #### Harvard Extension School Math Department Ted Tsomides MD, PhD, Harvard Extension School Pre-Calculus Instructor with whom I worked for many years. *I wish to highlight David Durlach's unique skill set as it relates to teaching mathematics.* *... David truly distinguished himself by combining unequivocal mastery of the technical knowledge with earnest concern for students' well-being and emotional experience. Every day he proved that it was not "one at the expense of the other." As an inventor he understood the math completely and could explain any of our concepts from a variety of angles.* *... When teaching trigonometry applications, he brought an oscilloscope with microphone to class in order to breathe life into potentially arcane mathematical concepts: students saw and heard and touched and manipulated cosine waves for themselves.* *... I know of no other math instructor more dedicated to the "whole person" while engaged in teaching. ... It is a great honor to recommend him unequivocally.* [(full letter)](support-letters/Ted-Tsomides-Reference-Durlach.pdf) Arthur, Pre-Calculus "*I would like to commend \[David Durlach\] ... for his expert teaching of a difficult subject. ... he clearly presented mathematical concepts in a manner that made them easier to understand. ... It is commendable that Harvard Extension School employs teachers of such high caliber. Such excellence deserves comment, and it is my hope that you will pass on my appreciation for \[David's\] brilliant instruction and diligence.*" Katie, Calculus 1 "*”I just wanted to say thank you SO much for all your help during math question center hours \[...\] We got our exams back today and I aced it (96%)!!”*" Hannah, Calculus 2 "*Thank you for all your help this semester! I really learned a lot from you and I appreciate your patience and excellent explaining! The final went very well and your help sessions had a lot to do with that. I feel prepared to take (and I am looking forward to taking) multivariable calculus when I return to my college in fall. Thanks again for all your help!*" #### Other Hands On!, Inc. Below are excerpts from an exhibit company [support letter](https://technofrolics.com/endorsements/letter-hands-on/) related to my work at TechnoFrolics and indicative "in spirit" to how I approach tutoring as well. *... David's remarkable sense of the interactive potential between science and art is a perfect match with the atmosphere of discovery and inspiration that we try to convey to the museum visitor.* *... What impresses us most about his work is the "social" nature of the experiences. While they are technologically and scientifically advanced, they express that sophistication with an almost childlike wonder that captivates all who encounter them.* *... David Durlach is, by far, one of the most dedicated and inventive people with whom we have had the pleasure of working. His devotion to reaching people of all ages, genders and cultures through the integration of science, art and personal experience is rare and welcome indeed.* --- ## YouTube videos on this page — transcripts ### [video of a presentation I gave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsWa8grqoow&t=3s) *YouTube video ID: `gsWa8grqoow`* *Recorded at the Creative Education Foundation's 2013 "Innovators to Educators" conference. Spoken content by David Durlach. The audiovisual recording is the conference organizer's; the transcript below is the speaker's own words.* [00:01] this business of innovation i [00:03] one of the things is [00:06] from my perspective i actually have [00:08] difficulty understanding [00:11] not innovating in the sense that i can't [00:13] shut off thinking of new ideas if i [00:15] tried [00:16] so it sort of was an interesting thing [00:17] thinking about this about how do you [00:19] put yourself in another person's [00:20] position because my problem is [00:22] in one day i think about enough things [00:25] that i can't possibly implement them in [00:27] 10 lifetimes at least not with the [00:29] funding i currently have [00:30] and in fact i think i could be [00:32] pathologically committed to a mental [00:35] institution for the number of urls i've [00:37] grabbed [00:38] with ideas that i'd like to follow up [00:40] that i'll never have time for because [00:41] each one is only ten dollars a year [00:43] right so where do you stop so i have [00:45] business model [00:46] pedia anti-hypocrisy.org you know i [00:49] could go on and all of these things [00:51] each of them are you know they're very [00:53] diverse but in any case [00:54] um i think that having these free [00:57] associations is both a gift [00:59] and it's a curse depending on your point [01:02] of view and what you're trying to [01:03] achieve [01:04] um and uh anyway so let me [01:07] let me show you something that i built a [01:09] very long time ago [01:11] like over 20 years and i want to say [01:14] that because [01:15] at the time in particular it was even [01:18] more sort of [01:19] out of the box than it is now and in [01:21] fact one of the reasons i built it is i [01:23] was completely desperate because at the [01:25] time that i was doing this this was in [01:27] the [01:27] sort of late 80s [01:31] the split between technology and the [01:33] rest of the world [01:35] was enormous there was no internet [01:37] basically no personal computers [01:38] so you had people who were technically [01:40] competent which were white men [01:42] in basements with no facial expressions [01:44] and then you had the rest of the world [01:46] women dance fun socially competent [01:49] people at least [01:50] marginally so you know and you know and [01:53] so [01:54] i i was actually desperate to be able to [01:57] communicate who i was inside which [01:59] merged those worlds in a way that was [02:01] pretty seamless [02:02] so my reason for innovating was pure [02:05] desperation to find a language and a [02:07] home i really didn't have any choice [02:09] because there was no home i didn't find [02:11] the basements particularly interesting [02:13] and i didn't [02:16] have the skills or really know how to be [02:18] in the other world plus [02:20] i really loved what technology could do [02:22] and i and i can share [02:23] some of the things that uh as a youth i [02:26] did [02:26] and my parents allowed so i'll go into [02:28] anyway what you're about to see was [02:30] built about 20 years ago we're still [02:32] selling them today [02:33] uh all over the world actually which is [02:34] sort of interesting we're just iron dust [02:36] and a choreographed magnetic field i'll [02:37] just show you a little piece of it [03:07] [Music] [03:26] that's real time there's no special [03:28] effects you're seeing something that's [03:29] an actual physical device [03:31] and the thing is it achieved what i [03:33] wanted which is it instantly connected [03:35] me [03:36] to the broad spectrum of people i wanted [03:38] to mean the incredibly anally focused [03:41] total nerd types would say you know what [03:43] microprocessor are using [03:45] and this was programmed originally on [03:47] five and a quarter inch floppy disks for [03:49] those people who remember that you know [03:51] a crazy oh you know um now it's it's [03:54] running [03:55] so fast that what took 20 minutes to [03:56] compile and i went to lunch when i built [03:58] that [03:58] is less than the time i can take to type [04:00] a second keystroke uh which is pretty [04:02] impressive it's gone up by a factor you [04:03] know ten thousand anyway [04:05] um but it it touched people [04:08] in all the ways that i had been hoping [04:10] so in that sense it was a real success [04:11] meaning the people who like dance [04:13] the people who like sort of watching [04:14] people's faces and [04:16] and who were socially interested and and [04:18] the hardcore techies now whether they [04:20] could talk to each other [04:21] varied okay um but [04:24] uh i guess what i would say um [04:29] is probably the thing that [04:32] maybe i have that's most value to impart [04:36] maybe is the idea that and it's also how [04:39] i started this and where i really came [04:42] from was merging emotional sensitivity [04:45] with technical competence [04:48] and one of the things i think that is [04:50] grossly [04:52] under valued in [04:55] education is understanding the [04:57] importance of emotional [04:59] anything i mean meaning it's all focused [05:01] on content [05:02] and if you ask me the question what's [05:04] more important [05:06] how you feel when you're learning [05:07] something or exactly what you learned [05:09] they're not even close the how you feel [05:12] when you're learning is [05:13] ten to a hundred times more important [05:15] for no other reason than the fact that [05:16] to learn anything complicated [05:18] takes an amount of effort that's [05:20] staggering and you know you were talking [05:22] about the failures here mean all this [05:23] stuff i've never done anything that was [05:24] easy for me it's [05:25] a huge amount of work and you have to [05:28] you have to be concentrating in the [05:29] potentially in the classroom there's [05:31] homework there's after you get out of [05:33] school [05:34] and unless you feel good about what's [05:36] going on [05:37] and good can be very broadly defined but [05:40] it can't be [05:41] i feel horrible stupid and this is [05:43] pointless okay [05:44] there's no chance of having anything [05:46] good happen so i think [05:48] really paying attention to that is is [05:51] critical [05:52] um and i think people [05:55] don't do that nearly enough now i i also [05:57] think people are enormously [05:59] self-limiting [06:00] um i i'm gonna make an exception of uh [06:03] uh stanley who who uh i think is the [06:06] least self-limited person [06:07] i've heard ever speak and it reminds me [06:11] of the joke that says [06:12] word not for physics and law enforcement [06:15] i would be unstoppable okay uh i did not [06:18] make that enough but i love that [06:20] okay and i think you're you're you're [06:22] perfect for that [06:23] i'm not [06:27] um but in any case i think that people [06:30] are enormously self-limiting and i do [06:33] some math teaching [06:34] and for example there are a lot of [06:36] students that this is like [06:37] tutoring you know one-on-one at the [06:39] harvard extension school there are a lot [06:40] of students [06:42] who have never had the experience i [06:44] think of understanding anything [06:47] so they're trying to understand a [06:48] particular thing built on lower level [06:50] things [06:51] but none of them have ever been [06:53] understood they've all been memorized [06:55] and so they're in this sea of [06:56] memorization [06:58] and it's very very hard because what i [06:59] want to do is go back to the very [07:01] beginning but that means [07:02] like 17 courses ago you know like how [07:04] and [07:05] and so i think that people just having a [07:07] sense of what's going on is key and i'm [07:10] partly [07:12] mentioning that because i think people's [07:14] internal state again [07:16] stanley excluded okay uh is frequently [07:19] things like they start to think about [07:21] something they get confused and where [07:22] their mind goes [07:24] is i'm stupid or or [07:27] any number of negative things and these [07:29] branch points are happening so [07:30] fast that the person is barely aware of [07:33] them [07:34] and and they're sitting there they're [07:36] fed back on themselves you know so it [07:37] gets very very bad so i think [07:40] that's not good um and i think people [07:42] need to pay a lot of attention to that i [07:44] also want to [07:45] focus on um the fact [07:48] that our technology landscape is [07:51] changing things meaning it used to be [07:53] that people who had knowledge [07:54] had value and that's not true anymore [07:57] okay people who have knowledge do not [07:58] have value anymore [07:59] uh people who may handle how to teach [08:01] may have value but not who have [08:03] knowledge i can get more in the internet [08:05] than [08:05] any textbook in five minutes um and so [08:09] i think the role of teachers is very [08:11] much more to [08:12] listen to the students to be a listener [08:15] and what they call sort of active [08:17] listener and reflect back to the [08:19] students [08:20] who they are because that's the one [08:22] thing you can't get on the internet [08:24] is someone who's really going to listen [08:25] to you and and [08:27] and and say i notice these things about [08:30] who [08:30] you are and that's that's not what [08:33] teachers are normally doing now they're [08:34] shoving out information [08:36] but that really doesn't have value i [08:38] mean i can again i can find i [08:40] mean i don't mean to belabor that point [08:41] but you know it's going to be i just can [08:43] find a lot of information [08:44] on the web um now i want to introduce a [08:48] sort of my background [08:50] my parents gave me a lot of freedom [08:53] meaning they did things like buy me [08:55] 50 000 volt rated gloves and a carpet [08:58] for the floor so that when i was doing [08:59] my experiments as a little kid i might [09:01] make it to this day alive [09:03] the only rule was that i couldn't draw [09:05] more power [09:06] from the house circuitry than at night [09:10] than a certain level because their [09:12] lights flickered and they got seasick [09:13] when they were reading in bed [09:15] okay so it's very very flexible i [09:18] unfortunately did detonate gunpowder and [09:20] almost blinded myself um [09:23] i did lots of other experiments i mean [09:25] ranging from [09:27] i'd heard that candles work by having a [09:30] vapor of the [09:31] wax in you know vaporized in a gas form [09:34] and then it would burn by [09:36] like continuing that light so i figured [09:37] okay why don't i get a large [09:39] pot of wax heat it up with a with a with [09:43] a propane torch or a hot plate [09:45] wait till it reaches that smoke state [09:46] and then ignite it which i did in our [09:48] basement [09:49] which was a wood house and i saw a ball [09:53] of fire [09:53] hit the roof and expand about that far [09:56] and i'm like [09:57] oh my god fortunately i had enough [09:59] information to have had a lid [10:01] and i closed the lid and the thing was [10:03] out and my heart rate was [10:05] unbelievable i was like i was like like [10:08] you know like this [10:09] and i also did lots of other things i [10:11] mean these are just [10:12] sort of random fun stories because [10:14] they're sort of amusing [10:16] i had electromagnets that i made when i [10:17] was little that was powerful enough to [10:19] suck the entire tv screen from the [10:21] electron gun [10:22] off the screen which i used to play with [10:24] um [10:25] let's see what else i don't know there [10:27] was oh i i arc welded with car batteries [10:30] where i wasn't wearing a shirt and i and [10:32] because of the ultraviolet light i got a [10:34] horrible sunburn which i never forgot [10:36] about uh [10:37] yes i was wearing the glasses but every [10:39] part of me other than the glass [10:41] was was bright red um [10:45] okay now here is actually a point that [10:48] i've done a lot more thinking about sort [10:50] of stem stuff than general creativity in [10:53] general [10:53] um and one of the one of the things i [10:56] want to say [10:57] also is that the whole culture of [10:59] science and stem stuff has this enormous [11:01] focus on the truth of things [11:04] rather than the context in which they're [11:08] being presented so [11:09] let me give you an example that was [11:11] really important to my sanity and sort [11:13] of growing up because i couldn't figure [11:14] i would listen to these conversations [11:16] between sort of academic types and um [11:19] [Music] [11:20] they would be emotionally very [11:22] unpleasant and i could never really get [11:24] a handle on what was going on and i [11:26] realized finally that the question of [11:29] whether what you said was true was [11:32] entirely unrelated to why you said it in [11:34] the beginning [11:35] um and i just want to so that for [11:36] example if you ask people in an academic [11:38] or sort of [11:40] formal environment why did they say what [11:42] they say they almost invariably will [11:44] tell you why what they said was [11:45] true not why they chose to say it and [11:48] let me make the point of why i'm saying [11:50] suppose you're in an argument with a [11:51] uh you know your wife or husband and you [11:54] say you're [11:55] fat well in the middle of some random [11:58] conversation they say you're fat [12:00] well the question isn't whether whether [12:02] they're fat is true or not [12:04] chris is why the hell did you say that [12:06] at this point [12:07] okay and and the problem is in certain [12:10] uh emotional interactions that that [12:12] question is a little bit understood [12:14] it's not understood at all in academia [12:16] you try to push people [12:17] to say why did you choose to say that [12:19] among the millions of things you could [12:21] say [12:21] they often don't even know because [12:23] they're operating out of some feeling [12:24] state [12:25] and and all this stuff very much affects [12:27] education i mean it may sound like i'm [12:28] rambling and i am a little bit which i [12:29] warned you about in the beginning [12:31] but these things are key to how how [12:33] students are learning the question is [12:35] not whether what you said is true the [12:36] question is was it a helpful thing to [12:38] say [12:39] okay and those are entirely unrelated um [12:42] i just want to sort of [12:43] add that there um all right uh let me [12:46] just see if i'm uh [12:50] oh yeah the other the other thing i [12:51] wanted to say too is [12:54] oops um maybe the most useful thing [12:58] actually are these little figures i [12:59] found you can ignore all the writing [13:01] they're just sort of fun [13:02] um anyway uh [13:07] okay yeah so i didn't have any [13:08] limitations so another thing also [13:10] i'm yeah i'm going to definitely run out [13:12] of time my schooling [13:14] in a lot of areas was i was left [13:15] entirely alone to do anything i wanted [13:18] for years on end i mean no constraints [13:21] whatsoever [13:22] okay so i would say that through most of [13:24] my formative years [13:26] half of my effort was deciding what [13:28] would i do [13:29] and the second half of how to do it and [13:32] in fact when i went to high school and [13:33] there were classes and people actually [13:34] told me i had to be at a certain place [13:36] i was mortified i was in tears [13:39] okay so so my upbringing was very very [13:42] much left on my own you know it was with [13:43] a lot of support [13:44] but no one had me you know i had to do [13:46] anything um and that that [13:48] had some good points and some bad points [13:49] my parents were definitely themselves [13:51] thoughtful my mother picked up computer [13:53] graphics when she was 61. so they were [13:54] definitely [13:55] thoughtful people i was always sort of [13:57] recognized and acknowledged [14:00] again i think the figures are probably [14:01] the most relevant thing here um [14:03] okay uh again i wanna i wanna be sure [14:06] that people don't forget this because i [14:08] think it really is not [14:09] always understood the amount of work to [14:11] learn anything is [14:12] a freaking pain in the ass you've got to [14:16] think about whether the rewards for that [14:18] are worth it to the person [14:19] we're not talking about just the class [14:21] we're talking about thinking hard [14:23] for possibly years or decades you know [14:26] as on end you've got to think what what [14:29] could possibly compensate people for [14:31] that whatever the answer for that is [14:33] it can't be treated as the grade for [14:35] that course that's off by a factor of [14:37] 100 [14:38] but in terms of what you need in terms [14:40] of the amount of work required [14:41] unless you're very very special but [14:43] that's been my experience [14:44] you know um okay i would say that [14:47] encouraging creativity and innovation [14:50] curiosity just be yours do it you're [14:52] that way yourself [14:53] and in fact one of the criticisms i have [14:55] about the school that i went to not not [14:56] a big one the one that sort of left me [14:57] to do whatever i wanted [14:59] is that all the role models there were [15:00] people interested in creative teaching [15:02] so there were no physics people no [15:04] dancers no artists they were only [15:06] creative [15:06] teachers and so there weren't any role [15:08] models for what to do other than the [15:10] creative teacher that's sort of a random [15:11] point [15:12] not um uh okay i would say that being [15:15] creative and innovative you don't have [15:16] to work at doing that that's natural [15:18] the problem is everyone's been told what [15:20] to do when to do it and how to do it for [15:21] so long [15:22] that they've lost the ability it's not [15:24] that they they don't have to be taught [15:25] the ability they just have to have it [15:26] not completely damaged [15:28] um that's another thing i feel pretty [15:30] strongly uh now of course i'm coming [15:32] from an environment that's extreme in [15:33] that case but then [15:34] that may be the point you know at least [15:36] it's one data point you know [15:37] and i'm not saying there aren't problems [15:39] with that environment either i'm hardly [15:40] taking the high ground they're different [15:41] issues but in terms of this [15:43] group it's probably worth saying um [15:46] i would communicate as um you know [15:48] saying that children are treating you as [15:49] an equal definitely i was treated as an [15:51] equal this was like one of these earlier [15:52] conversations [15:53] um i guess you know sentient being as as [15:56] well as just being an equal like a short [15:57] a short person but [15:58] put it equal you know um and then again [16:02] you know how your [16:03] students feel while learning uh oh i'm [16:05] really out of time [16:06] uh all right it matters at least as much [16:10] as any academic knowledge or skills you [16:11] or they have and in fact they've done a [16:12] lot of studies on coaching [16:14] particularly coaching women's teams [16:16] where simply getting to know [16:18] the people well between the coach and [16:19] the people i know people personally and [16:20] i've read about the national soccer [16:22] team just knowing the people and caring [16:24] about them had more of an effect on [16:25] their performance than almost anything [16:26] that was less true with the men's teams [16:28] interestingly [16:29] but but at least there's a broad [16:30] spectrum of people um i had [16:33] the title on my business card a feminist [16:35] engineer for many years [16:36] until i got exhausted of answering what [16:38] that meant but what it meant was doing [16:40] engineering [16:41] with the focus on sort of thinking about [16:44] what embedded [16:46] emotional and social assumptions are [16:48] there in choosing what [16:49] engineering is even useful for like this [16:52] dancing iron dusting people saying [16:54] oh sorry sorry this is my last thing i [16:55] really am wait is that i'm overtime [16:58] okay uh all i was gonna say is someone [17:00] once saw the dancing iron dust thing and [17:01] said [17:02] what the hell did they ever do to you to [17:04] cause you to build something like that [17:06] and i i think that's a good question [17:08] sorry thanks [17:09] hopefully that covers something --- ## Images on this page — text transcriptions ### [Image: image-1] — *Conceptual illustration of students ignoring a teacher with emotion-labeled thought bubbles.* e^iθ=cos(θ)+isin(θ) (We matter...) (Don't ignore us!) ### [Image: students-in-chairs-teacher-at-whiteboard] — Students in chairs. Teacher at Whiteboard *Cartoon illustration of stick-figure students with emoji thought bubbles during a math lecture.* e^iθ=cos(θ)+isin(θ) (We matter...) (Don't ignore us!) ### [Image: image-3] — *Three 3D stick-figure illustrations with a humorous caption about not being the speaker.* As I imagine you have gathered, also NOT me … --- *Source: https://daviddurlach.com/tutoring/* *Author: David Durlach | https://daviddurlach.com/droplets | https://technofrolics.com/about | https://www.linkedin.com/in/daviddurlach*