Am I really that excellent a tutor?

After reading my vital statistics (sometimes I wonder what so nice about my statistics, but whatever), many people have been flooding my emails with little complimentary notes and tuition enquiries on how successful I have been, and will be (with their children, of course). I'm touched, maybe these compliments just follows the rainy season annually! Hehe.

However, I think that I'm not that good a tutor as I'm hyped up to be. The results that pleased me so much were just that- results. There is nothing to suggest that getting those A*'s will guarantee that they will become wonderful people, with a wonderful job, like say- working in the government. If that is still considered as a 'wonderful job'. Haha.

There are many factors, in fact, to why my kids did well. I'm a Christian, so I believe God is with me. I think that without God, I would not have the strength to continue, the patience to handle the kids, the wisdom and intelligence to handle the difficult sums, the passion to drive each of them on, and the chance to even lead them to battle. These aspects to my teaching that students benefit from are not invented by myself.

I'm not extraordinarily good- I just teach based on what I know, using common sense. This applies to everything- including handling them or telling them how to handle the exam questions. Sometimes, the simplest step is the best step. Being pragmatic is not being boring or un-creative. See how those creative ones ended up complaining to the papers after getting stuck at the questions. Hahahaha.

I managed to produce good results for them, also because of my family. My father had been encouraging me while I was pushing myself to the limits for them; he was encouraging me when I was encouraging them. I guess everyone got encouraged, except my dad ;p

My mother has always put on the 'wet-blanket' persona, but there has been a genuine, and almost palpable, desire at home to see my kids do well. As mentioned, my father also reminded me of what I have forgotten, the need for simplicity and common sense, and the need to remember that ultimately, it was up to the kids as long as I had done my best.

And I must say, they delivered a hell of a lot.

In fact, to conclude in a relatively succinct manner- seeing how long-winded I have been throughout the post- the parents and kids helped themselves do well. From the little things- like pushing the kids to finish the Eatyourmaths homework, giving me the room to do what I did best, and paying up on time- they also helped motivate me to do what I could do, to the best of my abilities.

That said, I am not such a wonderful tutor. No one is a perfect tutor, and I know there are flaws in my teaching methodology at times. Everyone has such little flaws, and all of us tutors needs the common sense to see the flaws, and act accordingly. A teacher is hopefully not the epitome of perceived arrogance mixed with the "I'm-better-than-you" attitude.

Therefore, thank you to everyone mentioned, without whom the results could not have been produced. (I apologize if anyone thought they were watching the Oscar's awards ceremony, *proceeds to wipe a imaginary tear from his eyebrows*, or the Star Awards. Wahaha.)

And sorry to every guy on earth, who thought I was the sexy woman in the picture above about to give a Thank-You speech. My bad.