MCD is incredibly disorganized and unresponsive to the needs of its employees. There were countless occasions when our time (as tutors) was disrespected and when the administration made promises to us that were not kept. Perhaps there are just too many staff members to keep track of us all? Either way, there were simply too many "miscommunications" with serious consequences for the students and for the tutors.
The students are given little to no space to grow their personalities and social skills. They are exhausted and often miserable, crammed into a sterile atmosphere that precludes any chance for them to exist as children.
Match needs to interrogate its own "white savior" mentality and provide explicitly anti-racist instruction, as well as to do a much better job of screening staff to ensure that they will not engage with students in damaging, racist ways. I found this to be a significant issue throughout the year.
I found the administration to be relatively cold and uncaring, with a dismissive/patronizing attitude towards tutors and an often belittling attitude towards students--who are, effectively, lab rats in Match's grand experiment to see how high it can raise test scores at seemingly any cost.
Re. Match's focus on testing: because we were forced to speed through the material in order to cover everything on the tests, it felt as though the students caught a glimpse of everything and mastered nothing. I wish the focus were on student learning, rather than on test scores.
There was a shocking lack of relevant training provided for tutors--and tutors working with scholars with special needs were not provided any additional training. This resulted in a significant waste of those students' time, as tutors (mainly thinking of myself here) tried to get our bearings and figure out what would be needed to best serve these scholars.
The administration claims to care about their scholars, but when an oversight like this occurs it prompts me to wonder how sincere they are.
The pay is low--this is, of course, an obvious drawback of the position, but one which Match is upfront about. The only thing I would say about this is that it is not a sustainable lifestyle; such long hours, such high stress, and at such low pay. It felt nearly impossible to maintain positivity and motivation.
