About
Greetings, my name is Xavier Fischer. I was raised in a small rural town north of Grand Rapids and had a fascination from a young age in science. I remember in high school being enamored with the idea... of solving the protein folding problem and I set up my major and path to college around that. Eventually as I grew intellectually I lost interest in that problem and took up new ones but physics for me was always a means to an end; a tool to solve problems unassailable otherwise.
I had a tutoring experience midway through my high school experience. I was volunteer teaching algebra and geometry to a middle schooler who had the potential to be in advanced courses but had trouble finishing his course work. It was in those sessions in a McDonald's booths where I solidified my philosophies on learning. At every turn my student desired the answer with the least work possible. Initially he would just try to trick me into giving the answers to his homework which I was keen not to do then he would try to search for tricks and shortcuts to finish the work in front of him without really understanding it. I was and still am a very principled person and I encouraged and framed my questions in such a way to make in near impossible for him to coast by in my sessions. Suffice to say he did not enjoy that but we made up for it with regular breaks to regain morale. I didn't really comprehend the impact that I'd made until years later he found me and said that my tutoring had got him into the advanced classes and now he was very likely to be able to advance to college.
That experience is what inspired me to tutor. It is something I am naturally gifted at and also something where I can really make a difference in someone's life. I hope the next someone will be you. Happy learning
-Xavier Fischerread more
