Benefits of Academic Coaching

We believe that nearly all students have the potential to develop careful study habits, to prepare well for tests and projects, and to cultivate a sense of confidence not only in meeting the challenges of school, but also in pursuing the interests and careers that will motivate them beyond the academic sphere. Leading Learners wants to break the cycle of negative feelings from having performed poorly in the past or present. Math, reading, and writing are all difficult tasks, and an early confusion or perceived struggle may often haunt a student. Failing tests, struggling to read as fast as their peers, a discomfort asking for help or drawing attention to their challenges, all can cause deep senses of frustration and inadequacy. Parents are often subject to some of the same feelings, plagued both by a sense of guilt and the desire to relieve their children of the suffering school struggles can bring about. For many families, academic challenges can place a strain on the parent child relationship, forcing both into roles each regrets, the one as disciplinarian and the other as willful rebel or at least a frustrated learner. And all these feelings tend to emerge again at the beginning of each semester.

Leading Learners is here to guide students to view their academic struggles not as obstacles but as opportunities, not indications of their own inadequacies but chances to exercise of their own strength. Our years of working with students of all ages from all over the world have taught us that often students simply need to consider what they do not understand and what their genuine questions are about the subject at hand. Having a coach or tutor to study with individually makes a noticeable difference: low grades become high grades, discouragement turns to enthusiasm, and, most importantly, students begin to feel better about going to school every day and facing a load of homework every night. Coaches and tutors working one-on-one with a student occupy an important place between or beyond the parents and the student’s teachers. Our coaches are not as emotionally involved in the students’ struggles and can approach them free from the worries parents cannot help but feel. Coaches and tutors are also free from the administrative pressures and large numbers of students that occupy teachers.

Our coaches and tutors are only here to help and do not wish to waste any of the students’ time by adding extra work to an already busy schedule and full workload. We are free to focus on learning itself, meeting students where they are in their struggle, and assisting in finding a path through whatever obstacles come up. This means not avoiding or ignoring obstacles and struggles, but welcoming and surmounting them as the only fitting means by which we become adults.

We strive to work on the same team as teachers, sports coaches, youth pastors and parents who want the best for their students, opening lines of communication between working parents and educators.