You sit, minding your own business. Suddenly, you feel a twinge of unease crawl up your spine. A feeling as if someone, or something, is watching you. You shake it off. Clearly, you’re just being paranoid right? You look back down at your desk. And then… IT HAPPENS. Suddenly, tiny Tialde, mild-mannered 2nd grader is throwing paper around the office, laughing hysterically, and running out of here as fast as he can!

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!

You just found yourself victim to one of the Study Hut’s new competitions: who can keep their room the cleanest in exchange for pizza! Actually, you’ve found yourself victim to the inevitable aftermath of such a challenge: who can mess up everyone else’s room enough so they don’t get pizza! This, the first of many new challenges being formed around the Hut, is part of a new initiative starting up this semester. Now, at first glance, this may seem like meaningless prankerism (trust me, it’s a word) and time-wasting nonsense. But it’s actually a piece of what sets the Study Hut apart.

You’re children spend all day in a very ordered environment. They’re told where to sit, when to stand, how to speak, and what to do. To be fair, in a classroom of 30 children, such order is necessary. But the Hut doesn’t exist just to replicate school. We’re not here to just provide an environment that students just have to come to due to bad grades. We’re here to provide an environment that students want to come to (to help improve bad grades!) Initiatives like this promote better communication among tutors, which leads to better tutoring, and smarter students. And involving the students, like we did Tialde, promotes the idea that this is a place where that they can look forward to coming too. Most students here know most, if not all the tutors: not just the one they work with. They come here because the Hut is a place where people know you, get the work done, and have help in the process.

Plus, you get to occasionally throw paper around in exchange for pizza. That’s awesome.

I’m sure there are plenty of tutoring spots in Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and countless more in the south bay but I’m in inclined to believe that few can measure up to The Study Hut in Manhattan Beach.  Many parents struggle with where to send their children to get some help.  They try to give their children a leg up so they maybe they won’t have to struggle as much in the future.  The choices for giving a child an advantage can be mind boggling at times. There are so many places making claims about improving grades and how they will accomplish this amazing transformation in your child.  They make promises of making them an “A” student over night. The truth is there is no magic formula.  There is no making your child an overnight genius. Change comes with work and constant work to boot.  The work is a communal project; it can’t come in a tutor session alone.  Now, this is the place where the real separation comes into play. Other places say they will change the culture your child has developed but only care about what occurs in the tutoring session only. However the dedicated folks at the study hut aka the hut make sure to communicate with the parents on the work which is accomplished and needs to be accomplished on a nightly basis.  They call home and let parents know their child still have 3 hours worth of work left and work to develop strategies to make sure this isn’t the norm. They make sure the culture created at the hut also becomes the culture the student sees at home.  Because it takes a village to raise a child, no matter how big or small the village might be.

One of the biggest misconceptions about tutoring is its purpose. Many a time, students will come expecting one of three things: that we’re here to do their homework for them, that we can help them cram 5 chapters of material in one night for a test tomorrow morning, or that they’re done for the night the second their tutoring sessions over.

Needless to say, these ideas are false. Tutoring is not, nor ever shall be, a substitute for actual, nose-in-the-book work. We’re not here to do the work for you, teach you short cuts, or help you simply “skate by”. That might help you get a decent grade on tonight’s homework assignment, but you’d be in major trouble the first time a quiz came along. And we’re not here just to help you with the next test, or tomorrow’s assignment. Here, our focus isn’t to teach you the material. It’s to teach you HOW TO STUDY the material. Our major goal is to make it so that you don’t need us anymore. We want to get you to a point where you know how to break down a chapter, write an essay, compose an outline, and solve an equation without someone looking over your shoulder. But, of course, if you still need our help, we’ll still be here to help you again. Doing well in school is not a sprint. It’s a marathon.

Time and time again, the students that I’ve seen do the best are the one’s working before the come in, and ready to work after they leave. They’re the students who have already read and outlined the chapter, but are coming in to help with understanding it. They’re the ones who just spent an hour and a half working with me, and are already putting together a plan for what they’ll work on at home. These are the students who are not only preparing themselves for tomorrow, but for the rest of the year.

Tutoring is meant as a supplement to your learning. If you rely on it completely, without putting in the extra work, it’s not going to be effective. But if you truly work your butt off, utilizing as many advantages as you can (including tutoring at the good ol’ Study Hut), you’re going to see the kind of change you want.