LOS ALTOS, Calif. ³Can we take a
look at your backpack?²
Ms. Homayoun with Chris Picetti, a
junior, and her dog, Mason.
Ana Homayoun repeats that question
countless times a day. No, she does not screen airline passengers or work
security at a basketball arena.
Ms. Homayoun is a tutor. She helps
teenagers with subjects like math and science, but she particularly specializes
in teaching boys how to become more organized.
One afternoon in her cozy office
suite in this affluent suburb south of San Francisco, she asked John
Ferrari, 14, to go through a two-inch stack of papers he pulled from his
backpack. He sorted through the papers, placing them in separate piles
writing, spelling, vocabulary, tests to bring order to his loose-leaf binder.
³Oh, hereıs my class schedule,
what a relief,² said John, an eighth grader.
A moment later, he stumbled across
something even more valuable. ³I have to turn this in tomorrow,² John said.
³Itıs the name I want on my diploma.²
With girls outperforming boys
these days in high school and college, educators have been sparring over
whether there is a crisis in the education of boys. Some suggest the need for
more single-sex schools, more male role models or new teaching techniques.
Others are experimenting with physical changes in classrooms that encourage
boys to move around, rather than trying to anchor them to their seats.
But as they debate, high-priced
tutors and college counselors have jumped into the fray by charging as much as
$100 an hour and up to bring boys to heel.
The tutors say their main focus is
organizational skills because boys seem generally to have more difficulty
getting organized and multitasking than girls do.
And so private counselors in
places as diverse as Chicago, New York City, Sarasota, Fla., and Bennington,
Vt., who guide juniors and seniors in applying to college, have devised
elaborate systems from color-coded, four-month calendars that mark dozens of
deadlines to file boxes that students must take to each session.
Donna Goldberg began working with
students in Manhattan on how to get organized 17 years ago. Her inspiration was
her own son, then in seventh grade. Mrs. Goldberg was astonished to learn that
he had not been turning in any homework.
³He opened his backpack, which was
really a black hole, and he said, Here it is,ı ² she said. He had not
understood that in seventh grade he was responsible for handing in his
homework, instead of waiting to be asked.
Some educators think the tutors
are on the right track, whether or not there is science to back them up. ³The
guys just donıt seem to develop the skills that involve organization as early,²
said Judith Kleinfeld, a psychology professor at the University of Alaska and
founder of the Boys Project, a coalition of researchers, educators and parents
to address boysı problems.
Mrs. Goldberg, Ms. Homayoun and
other private tutors say boys must learn not only how to organize, but also how
to manage their time and even how to study.
Robert Gittings, a sixth grader,
has been coming weekly to work with Ms. Homayoun since September. He, too, is
asked to empty his backpack, and on one visit, cheerfully removed a vast
collection of textbooks, binders, workbooks, paperback books and hardcover
library books.
Most of the binders were orderly
and reasonably neat. But there was a stack of papers from science, nearly an
inch thick, that needed to be sorted.
³Do you have homework for
tonight?² Ms. Homayoun asked.
He replied, ³We have a work
sheet.² But it was not in the homework section of the science binder or in his
daily planner.
Then Robert remembered where he
put it. From a side pocket of his backpack, he pulled a sheet of paper that has
been folded into a tiny rectangle.
Ms. Homayoun laughed and said
gently, ³Maybe we should put that in the homework section?²
Ms. Homayoun opened her business,
Green Ivy Educational Consulting, not long after graduating from Duke
University in 2001. She created her organizational system basically an
elaboration of the ways she studied in high school after she began tutoring
six years ago.
³I would ask, Whatıs the class
that troubles you the most?² she said. ³I would ask to see the binder, and it
would always be the messiest.²
She requires her clients to have a
three-ring, loose-leaf binder for each academic subject, to divide each binder
into five sections notes, homework, handouts, tests and quizzes, and blank
paper and to use a hole puncher relentlessly, so that every sheet of
school-related paper is put into its proper home.
Students must maintain a daily
planner; they are required to number the order in which they want to do each
dayıs homework and draw a box next to each assignment, so it can be checked off
when completed.
Homework must be done in a
two-hour block in a quiet room, with absolutely no distractions: no instant
messaging, no Internet, no music, no cellphone, no television.
While some girls need help getting
organized, at least three-quarters of her students are boys, Ms. Homayoun said.
Girls usually adopt her methods more quickly.
³Girls pick up on this much
faster,² said Ms. Homayoun, 28, who has a relaxed but firm manner and a gift
for diplomacy with teenagers and their parents. ³Boys, you still have to
be on them for a while. Theyıre not going to pick up on it immediately. You
have to roll with it.²
Two seniors arrived for weekly
appointments, expecting to complete their college applications and file them
online. But the tutor discovered that one boy left out sections of basic
personal information on his application, while the other missed a requirement
for three short essays by the University of Virginia. Each was disappointed
that there was more work to do.
³Sorry,² she consoled one. ³Itıs
like thinking youıve finished a marathon and finding out you have three miles
left.²
With guidance and constant
follow-up, boys can make significant progress, Ms. Homayoun said. Ernie
McMillan, 17, a high school senior who has been working with her since the
summer before his junior year, is one example. He created orderly binders, kept
on top of his daily planner, took notes while reading and even agreed to
eliminate distractions during homework.
In the spring of his sophomore
year, Mr. McMillan had a 2.8 grade-point average, a B-minus. After working with
Ms. Homayoun, he raised his average to 3.1 in the first semester of his junior
year. Last spring, he brought it up to 3.5, a B-plus.
³I was really happy about that,²
he said. ³I always thought I could do it, and I didnıt understand why I
couldnıt. I just needed that backing, that structure. I was turning in my
assignments on time. I was working ahead on my classes. I was organized in a
way I never had been before.²
Mr. McMillan stopped for a moment, before adding, ³She totally reworked my backpack, too.²
Questions
Writing: Why is there a market for this?