01.21.2004 - 10:41 a.m.

Yesterday I led the semester's first meeting of all the tutors I supervise. On the way home from work I was still thinking about them, individually and as components of the evolving thing that is my Writing Center, capital W, capital C.

There's K1 and K2, my old reliables, not only because they're seniors and experienced tutors but because you can give them a large, general task and trust that it will not only get done, but done well, with written report attached. K1 is the last tutor who ever knew me as a student here. There will be no more.

There's M and S, my old not-so-reliables, who are good at what they do so long as I periodically remind them to do it. But S is one of those spunky people, good for public speaking and idea generation, and M is quiet and detail-oriented, so I rely on them a lot, too.

Then there are the tutors I still think of as new even though they trained all last spring and started in September: another S and three more Ks, some of whom I'm learning the measure of, others whom I do not yet trust unsupervised. It is funny to note that I am quicker to trust the ones with personalities most similar to mine; I guess it is easier for me to pretend I understand someone I see myself in.

Finally there is C, new this semester, who is pretty and heavily made up and likeable so long as you can speak over her when you need her to hear. I am nervous about her; she seems most drawn to K3, the new tutor I like the least thanks to her strong, negative opinions.

If I had tried to do character sketches of the tutors last year or the year before, I might have used hair color, clothing style, or favorite phrases, the things a writer would have to notice in order to sell them on paper. I would have thought more about their lives outside the Writing Center. I'm not sure when I learned to think in terms of human resources.

-stonebridge

previous | next