20 Tutors Reveal What Really Goes On Behind Closed Doors

It may seem that a tutor’s work involves notebooks, textbooks, and calm one-on-one sessions. But in reality, it’s much more entertaining: students surprise with their phrases, parents come up with something unexpected, or the environment itself presents amusing situations. In short, tutoring is never boring.

• I teach English and also work as a tutor. I don’t have many students, but there’s one woman who takes lessons with me while sitting on the toilet. I can’t see the toilet itself, but from the surroundings, I understand that’s exactly where she is and most likely, she’s not just sitting there for no reason. At first, it puzzled me a bit, but she works so diligently, picks up everything quickly, and I have no complaints about her, except for this one. Now, I almost don’t pay any attention to this — who knows, maybe that’s her special place of power. © Caramel / VK
• I call my student at the designated time, but she doesn’t answer. A few minutes later, she joins the call. I comment on her being late.
  We continue the lesson, I look out the window and think, “It’s so bright. Last time, it was already dark when we had a lesson.” And then it hits me that now I’m supposed to be teaching Pete, not Maria! © Overheard Tutors / VK
• I’m a tutor. Sometimes, kids trust me more than their parents. That’s how I found out before his mom did that a student had been skipping school for a month, and nobody “caught” him — I was actually impressed by his cleverness!
  Then he came to me, I asked him what he was going to do, and he shrugged, “Well, I guess I’ll have to catch up on everything I missed.” But what flatters me the most is that he never skipped my lessons. © Caramel / VK

Sometimes tutors receive weird messages.

Source used for creating this material: @its_me_lidiana / Instagram

• My husband is a tutor. He works with a boy who is significantly behind in school. Suddenly, the boy disappeared: he didn’t show up for his lesson, and he didn’t submit his homework.
  My husband calls and sends messages — no response. He calls the boy’s mother, and that’s when she drops the bombshell. She declares, “I know he’s out of touch — I personally took away all his devices. He’s punished!”
• When I started my tutoring career, I took on all offers. I overworked, forgave cancellations, and felt guilty if a student had bad results.
  I spent 3 months teaching English to a 12-year-old who didn’t need it at all — his parents forced him. The mother warned me up front that he might get distracted and not do his homework. I tried to make lessons interesting, repeated topics a hundred times, and extended sessions for free. He made minimal progress, the parents were happy, but I was drained.
  I realized it’s unnatural to push so hard without interest from the other side. I declined to continue the lessons, and now I choose my students more carefully. Some might call this “being spoiled,” but for me, it’s finally finding joy in my work. © Caramel / VK
• I used to have a candy dish at my lessons. One time, a student simply took the dish and poured all the candies into her backpack!
  During the next lesson, the candy dish was naturally gone. I gave the student an assignment and stepped out for literally 30 seconds. The little darling rummaged through my closet where the candies were kept — she knew exactly where I stored them. This girl, by the way, comes from a very wealthy family, obviously not seeing candy for the first time at age 10.
  When I mentioned that rummaging through closets was at the very least impolite, she said I was accusing her falsely and that she hadn’t been rummaging anywhere, all while diligently chewing on a candy as she defended herself.
  — But I saw it with my own eyes.
  — No, you imagined it!
  That was her last session. © Overheard Tutors / VK

• I dated a girl for a long time, but we had different personalities and broke up. Many years later, I started working as a tutor.
  One day, a woman called me and asked me to prepare her daughter for an exam. I arrived, laid out the textbooks, and began the lesson, but soon realized that the girl hardly needed a tutor — she already knew everything well.
  At that moment, the door opened, and my ex walked in. She had changed beyond recognition: a different style of clothing, hairstyle, even her facial features were different. And then the student said, “Oh, hi, mom, we’re working on assignments here.”
  The ex smiled and explained that after I went abroad, we lost all contact, and she stumbled upon my tutoring ad purely by chance. That’s how she found out I was back in town, and I found out I have a daughter. © Caramel / VK
• I’m an online English tutor. But I myself take lessons with other teachers a couple of times a month. Not to improve my language skills. I’m just curious to observe how colleagues work and what methods they use.
  I take one lesson from different tutors, pick up their tricks, and then apply them in my work. If only they knew how much useful info they’ve shared — maybe then they’d raise their lesson prices. © Ward No. 6 / VK
• We were solving a math problem with a student. The fifth-grader is diligently writing down the numbers on paper, and I’m overseeing the solution. Suddenly, he stops and turns his head to me with a question in his eyes:
  — How many students have you had before me?
  — Two, why?
  — I just decided to count how much you’ve earned today.
  — If you need more data, I had 6 sessions yesterday and 3 the day before. In total, I have 25 hours a week...
  — That’s enough, I already understood you’re a businesswoman.
  He calmed down and continued solving the problem. A minute later:
  — And do you pay taxes?! © Overheard Tutors / VK

• I work as a tutor, and often my relationships with students are quite friendly. I am completely clueless when it comes to technology: I understand nothing and constantly break everything. I once shared this with a student, and he happily agreed to take care of it all.
  In the end, he fixed everything I needed, and I gave him an extra lesson for free. We’ve been working like this for over a year now, and it suits everyone just fine. © Ward No. 6 / VK
• I work as an English tutor. Kids vary. Today I met with a new student for the first time, and overall, the lesson went quite well. At the end, I said, “Now for your homework.” And she goes, “If you give me homework, I’ll tell my mom you were rude to me.”
  I was like, “Whaaat?” And she said, “Well, since you do tutoring, you must need money, so we’ll keep doing English but without homework. And if there is homework, you won’t work here long.”
  I quietly gathered my things, approached her mother, briefly explained the situation, and wished them luck in finding a new tutor. © Ward No. 6 / VK
• I’m an English tutor. I used to work with children, but a few years ago, I switched to a school for adults and realized it’s much easier for me with them. We can practice English and just chat about various topics. I get along well with many students, and some former ones have even become my friends.
  Additionally, I’ve made some useful connections — a good lawyer, doctors in various fields, and so on. I don’t ask for discounts, but if something ever comes up, I always know who to turn to. © Not Everyone Will Understand / VK

• Once, I lost a bet and went to apply for a job at a car wash, bringing along a perfect school record, an honors degree, and even a few certificates from childhood contests. To my surprise, the car wash owner took me very seriously, carefully reviewing my papers, and finally asked, “Why do you want to wash cars? Do you want to tutor my son?”
  For the last 6 months, I’ve been tutoring him and have taken on more students, leaving my main job behind. Now my friends don’t want to play games with me anymore, because I always turn jokes into something serious. © Not everyone will understand / VK
• I teach violin to people of all ages. I’ll always remember my first student. An 8-year-old with such responsibility and diligence is rare to find: she would arrive early, practice for 45 minutes daily, and always learned with great interest.
  At that time, I was very worried about my admission and work, doubting whether I would receive good recommendations from my teachers. I casually mentioned this to her mother. A week later, the student brought me an envelope, and inside was a “recommendation letter” written in simple pencil.
  In it, she explained what a good teacher I was and how much she loved my lessons, providing examples and even signing her full name in messy handwriting. It was the most touching letter I’ve ever received. © Unknown author / Reddit
• Every year, the family of a boy I once tutored tries to enroll with me again, but our collaboration ceased because one day I raised my rate. Every year, at the end of August, I receive a message: “Will you take Alex this year?” And upon stating the new rate, which, incidentally, increases each time, the mother goes silent for another year. And so it has been for 4 years now.
  Today, they wanted to place Alex, who is a ninth grader now, with me again. This time, I couldn’t resist and asked the mother why she offered her son every year and then backed out:
  “We’re waiting for your prices to drop!”
  “Why do you think they’ll drop when everything else gets more expensive every year?”
  “Because people aren’t fools to overpay for something that shouldn’t cost so much! Discounts should always be available in tough times, or tutors will lose students.”
  “But Alex isn’t gaining more knowledge while you wait for discounts...”
  “If a tutor’s good, they’ll bring anyone up to speed in a year! And yes, while you were arguing with me, we’ve already found Alex a great tutor who will give us a discount! We no longer need your services, thanks!” © Overheard Tutors / VK

• I’ve set up my office for remote lessons on the balcony, and now I close myself in there when I have a class. And right there on the balcony, on the other side, is my wife’s desk. Sometimes she also sits nearby when I’m teaching.
  I put on my headset with a microphone and go to work. I have this habit — I speak very loudly, almost shouting, when I’m wearing headphones, and every time after a lesson, my wife points it out to me. And yet, I keep slipping into shouting.
  So, I decided to get this under control and managed to conduct an entire lesson without raising my voice. I wrap up the lesson, take off my headphones, and my wife says to me:
  — Are you aware that today you ruined the plans of all the neighborhood kids, who had already lined up chairs along our wall according to schedule? © Solo1986 / Pikabu
• I’m browsing dating sites and came across a guy, also a tutor. The first question we asked each other after matching was: “What’s your rate?” © Overheard Tutors / VK

• I work as an English tutor for a group of preschoolers. Today, we were covering the topic of “Family” in class. I ask a 6-year-old girl how to say the word in English — she answers.
  Then, throughout the lesson, I ask the same question to other students a few more times to check if they’ve grasped the new material. Suddenly, the same girl couldn’t hold back and indignantly exclaimed: “You’ve been told 6 times already! Is it really that hard to remember?!” © Work Stories / VK
• I work as an English tutor, and most of my students are adults. Some of them live abroad, so their language proficiency is quite good. I realized that each of my students at some point has asked for a lesson or even several lessons on how to curse in English. The most interesting part is that when studying this topic, their eyes lit up like never before.
  Recently, I decided to make a course on the same topic, and there were several times more people interested in it than in any of my other courses. It seems the key is to be able to express your emotions, and everything else can somehow be learned later. © Ward No. 6 / VK

And these tutors had a funny experience with their students.