Schools

Tutor Doctor: "Focused and Serious," Parents Say

Part 2: Two parents from Wildwood and Eureka share their experiences using in-home educational consultants for their children, a company that was introduced on Patch on Tuesday.

Along with autumn comes the next level of the new school year, during which many students begin to realize what their biggest academic challenges will be. It's a good time to assess what extra academic pressure may be warranted.

Editor's Note:  Tutor Doctor's core work revolves around individual tutoring for math, science, language arts, SAT/ACT performance and summer learning. The West St. Louis County Tutor Doctor franchise is owned by Elizabeth Freeman, who services Wildwood, Eureka, Chesterfield, Fenton and Valley Park families.

Theresa Griffith, a parent living in Wildwood, said Tutor Doctor "changed their lives for the better in many ways." She and her husband work many hours, so they first employed Tutor Doctor to assist one of their children with homework. "It started out as supplemental 'parent help,'" she said, primarily because she had an extended work assignment in Atlanta.

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Griffith said they paid upfront for a block of time, based on a hourly rate, from which actual sessions were withdrawn.

Then, during January, Griffith's other child who attends Lafayette High School was in a car accident and put on the homebound school program. "Our Tutor Doctor tutor came twice a week to help with missing assignments and to outline papers," she said. "He helped with English, science and math, pretty much everything except French and her acting class."

Find out what's happening in Eureka-Wildwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Tutor Doctor is proactive and easy to deal with," she said. "We were hoping for a profound, overall change in our children in the way they approached school—more than just teaching the same things from school, just deeper. We were hoping that someone could help our son and daughter by catering to the learning styles that motivate them. We got that, and more with our tutor."

Griffith said the Tutor Doctor program was flexible, compared to other educational consulting programs that lock students into attending specific classes at certain times at the business' physical location. "Tutor Doctor was client-centric, with our tutor rearranging days if our children were sick or had a sports practice time change. He even came on Saturdays."

She said their tutor got their children motivated and organized, while boosting their confidence and overall self-esteem.

"Our tutor took a holistic approach, and did so much more than just reviewing lessons with them. He inspired them to believe in themselves," said Griffith, who also stated she liked that Freeman called them once a month about performance reviews and progress.

Eureka resident and mother of four children Shenee Boyle said her family had a very specific reason to tap into Tutor Doctor's assistance. Her youngest daughter got buried and behind in honors chemistry. "She finally became so lost, we were eager to get immediate help," said Boyle, which to her surprise, Freeman provided during the same day of her contacting Tutor Doctor.

Boyle said a quick assessment determined what her daughter didn't understand and their tutor came three times a week for 2 hours. "Tutor Doctor was very focused and very serious about helping our daughter."

Boyle said her daughter caught up in the chemistry class so fast, they had leftover sessions with Tutor Doctor. Freeman suggested they rollover the education consulting time to college entrance exam preparation. "The tutor we were paired with was perfect for our daughter. We appreciated the immediacy of Tutor Doctor's approach; they were awesome."


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