East Lyme's Learning Lodge: Tutoring For The Average Student

With Connecticut Mastery Tests and CAPT tests underway at local schools, all eyes are on student achievement. But while these tests serve as a statewide barometer of how students are doing, at the local level, teachers, parents, and students are keenly aware that it's the day-to-day learning that matters most.  

Parents aren't likely to read their kids the riot act if they don't do well on the CMT test but, if it's a daily battle to get them to do their homework, if they know their kids are smart but are getting below par grades, or if their kids aren't prepared to take their college SATs, well, that's when parents start to worry. 

And that's where The Learning Lodge comes in. Located at 26 Chesterfield Road adjacent to the entrance of East Lyme High School, The Learning Lodge offers tutoring and SAT and ACT prep classes to students from East Lyme, Salem, Waterford, Old Lyme, Lyme, Montville, New London and beyond. 

Mike Manifold—a part-time teacher of accounting and finance at East Lyme High School and a former teacher in the Waterford school system with eight years teaching experience under his belt—opened The Learning Lodge in East Lyme last June.

 As Manifold wryly noted, "It was the worst possible time to open a business for students." Yet, even in the middle of the summer vacation, he found clients almost immediately, because what he offers is unique.

With surfboards and snowboards tacked up on the walls and a pantry stocked with Ramen Noodles and Cheez-its, the Learning Lodge is designed to be a comfortable environment for kids. At the end of the school day, Manifold said, the last thing a kid wants is to spend another few hours with a teacher.

So Manifold hires the best and the brightest high school and college students, all of whom have proven mastery of their subject matter in, for instance, AP physics or chemistry, to tutor students. Not only do his clients relate to their tutors as peers, it keeps local high school and Connecticut College students gainfully employed too. 

"The idea is to have college kids and top high school kids help high school and middle school kids prepare for tests and get organized," Manifold explained. "It's not a place to come to get remedial help. It's a place for average students to come to improve their academic skills and get work done, and done on time."

After grabbing a snack, students go with their tutors to a quiet room and sit down to go over their notes and begin their homework assignments or study for upcoming tests. It's work the students have to do anyway but here they're learning study skills from mentors who have got it down.  

As Manifold describes it, the program is designed for, "bright kids who just don't do their homework or who walk into a test unprepared." For parents, it offers the added benefit of eliminating the nightly fights over whether homework is done.  

"We're not going to give them more work to do [we're here] to get them to do the work," said Manifold. "Here the focus is on getting better grades, on consistently getting your work done to take you from a C to a B, or a B to an A."