u/MontysBeret

I am tutoring a 16-year-old student who is supposedly learning about rational functions. He can't add 1/2 to 1/3 without a calculator, and he tries to do things like finding common denominators when multiplying fractions. Is there any hope of him genuinely understanding any of the material he is currently being presented with?

I am very well paid and figure that I can help him muddle through his assignments slightly more efficiently (and perhaps even pass given how much of a joke American standards are) but I know deep down at the end of the day that I am just enabling his ignorance in exchange for his parents' money and helping him avoid real accountability.

My dream is that one day, the education system as a whole can stop pretending that most our students are anywhere close to where we are say they are.