I didn't realize how successful, until the following encounter.
I had been tutoring Nanci for two weeks since our first meeting about grades. She was now doing extremely well there, but she was desperate to improve her standing in as many courses as possible.
The tutoring was inevitably boring and Nanci was having difficulties drawing the right conclusions, I found that she'll get easily distracted, I would often catch her looking at me rather than at her books, and was obviously developing a crush on her brilliant, patient, caring Professor - me! But now, after the recent successes, I saw no need to carry Nanci's tutoring any longer, so fear that our experiences would get in the way of the original purpose and actually damage her progress. I would discontinue the tutoring sessions, award her extra credit for her effort, and fairly grade the remainder of her assignments.
After class on Friday, I told her my decision and encouraged her to try studying on her own, and I assured her that I had great confidence in her abilities. She seemed surprised, looked at me with her large eyes, blinked a few times but nodded, said nothing and hurried down the hall.
At eight o'clock, Saturday morning, my doorbell rang, interrupting my breakfast. Only in my robe, I answered the door to see Nanci standing there with a tear-streaked face.
"Nanci? What's wrong?"
"Oh, Professor! Please! I'm so sorry!"
"Come in. Now, sorry for what?" I asked, as I closed the door.
"Sorry for whatever I did, that you don't want to tutor me anymore!"
"Nanci, Dear, you didn't do anything. I just think you're capable of doing good work on your own."
"Don't you like me, anymore?"
Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she looked at me. Her hazel eyes were flooded with them.