Tutor style

Martha Jo Robinson recalled her own struggles as a high school math student in Louisa County and came up with an idea.

She decided to start a tutoring program for students in Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County.

“It’s the best thing in the world,’’ she said. “It’s extremely important for children to get help.”

After obtaining teaching credentials at Mary Baldwin College in 1991 and serving as a volunteer teacher at Wilson Memorial High School, Robinson embarked on an afterschool tutorial program in 1999.

Today, One Child At A Time, located in Waynesboro’s Stoneridge office complex, celebrates a decade of service and the tutoring of more than 800 high school students from the area.

Robinson tutors high school students in English, and her staff of retired teachers and college students offer help in math, science and other core high school subjects.

Students stay in the program for as short a time as a semester and as long as their high school career.

For four hours Monday through Thursday, students get personal assistance.

“There’s a student, a teacher and a subject,’’ Robinson said.

Retired R.E. Lee High math teacher Tommy Vames contrasts his experiences at One Child At A Time with those as a classroom teacher.

“It’s on a one-to-one basis,’’ he said. “You don’t have 20 students in a class. You can work miracles.”

Lowell Lemons, a professor of education at Mary Baldwin College and former superintendent of the Waynesboro Schools, has high praise for One Child.

He referred parents to the program as a superintendent, and his Mary Baldwin students get practical teaching experience with One Child.

Lemons said while classroom teachers work hard to vary their instruction, one-on-one teaching is sometimes needed.

And Lemons said it’s not reasonable to expect parents to always help with instruction.

“If my child brings home a calculus book, I won’t be much help,’’ he said. “This program really helps families.”

Vames tutors students on math problems they struggle with and works on strategies for the future. Each session lasts an hour.

He tutors 60 to 70 students a school year.

Vames said students are sometimes reluctant at the first session. But a bond develops between tutor and student after the initial visit.

“The next time they can’t wait to get here,’’ Vames said.

Vames credits Robinson with keeping the nonprofit program afloat.

Robinson said volunteer help, donations and other funding have allowed One Child to stay in business.

The Waynesboro East Augusta Rotary Club has provided annual financial support and has helped with fundraising, said Glenn Martin of the club.

“Rotary’s motto is ‘Service Above Self’ and OCAT demonstrates this very clearly with their dedicated volunteers helping the hundreds of students in Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County with academic tutoring,’’ Martin said.

One Child has earned two Dawbarn Education Awards and received the attention of Virginia’s former secretary of education, Belle Wheelan.

Wheelan nows serves as the president of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

One Child receives referrals through word of mouth and parents as well as area guidance counselors at high schools.

The program marks its decade anniversary at 2 p.m. today at Tinkling Spring Presbyterian Church in Fishersville.