Pro Tutor Begins Fall Semester

Dianna Kuligowski loved teaching special education, but when her daughter was born, she could no longer work full time. She decided to try something new—she became a tutor.

That was 20 years ago. Her daughter, then an infant, is now an adult. And Kuligowski is still a tutor, she still makes her own hours, and she loves it more than ever.

“I love being with the kids, and the parents are wonderful,” Kuligowski said. “I enjoy watching them learn and develop strategies.”

Kuligowski lives in Regent Square, and much of her tutoring takes place in a home office. She has no homepage, no secretary, no Twitter or Facebook, nor advertising of any kind, except for a listing on the Regent Square Business site. And yet she works with up to 20 students at a time, year in and year out, helping them through every subject in the book.

Where does she find these pupils? “Word of mouth,” Kuligowski says, adding that schools often refer students to her as well. But even these referrals are unofficial; although Kuligowski often joins students on campus for one-on-one study, she doesn't work for any school system, public or private.

When speaking of pedagogy, Kuligowski seems the purest kind of educator. “I believe that children are children,” she says. “I think everyone can learn no matter what you put in front of them. The younger I get them, the better. That’s really the time you want to work with kids.”

What began as a part-time activity has evolved into a full-time job, and although work slows down in the summer, students flock back to her in the fall. Meanwhile, she is extremely protective of her children; when asked about particularly challenging cases, she politely declines, insisting that every student works differently. But her background equips her for nearly any situation.

“The work varies, from student to student, from place to place,” she says. Although Kuligowski occasionally works with high school students, she prefers the younger crop. Her only academic limits are high school math and science, which become exceedingly technical. “I can teach across the board. I can work on cognition, study skills. I took the skills that I learned in teaching and applied it here.”

Students haven't changed much in the past two decades, Kuligowski says. But there has been one positive development: Because she is trained in special ed, Kuligowski has observed that many students with special needs are diagnosed at younger ages. The earlier these needs are identified, the earlier Kuligowski and other educators can intervene.

After such a successful career, Kuligowski isn’t sure where tutoring will lead her. “It was supposed to be short term,” she says with a small laugh. But because the rubric has worked so well, she recommends tutoring to others, especially mothers of young children. She suggests that tutoring, even in the worst of times, is a satisfying way to ride out a lousy economy.

“I think it would definitely help to have an education background,” Kuligowski says sagely. “But it can be what you want it to be.”