philosophy

Welcome to the blue tomato center for individual learning and critical thinking website! Here you can find detailed information about all of our services, including:

Educational Consulting
Academic Tutoring
Test Prep
Academic Coaching
Homeschooling
Learning Differences

blue tomato has been collaborating successfully with parents, students, teachers, Neuropsychologists, Educational Psychologists, Learning Specialists and School Administrators for over 10 years. We have done extensive work with families in New York City and Long Island throughout the years and are now proudly known as an invaluable resource to parents throughout the city.

Our Philosophy

blue tomato was founded in 1998 in response to what I viewed as a missing piece in the field of tutoring: a personal yet comprehensive learning center that would meet a range of educational needs. My vision was to create a learning center that would offer families and their children the opportunity for educational consulting, ongoing academic tutoring, short term standardized test preparation, support for learning differences and, most recently, homeschooling. blue tomato's approach is based on a set of distinct principles integral to who we are and what we believe to be fundamental in the education process:

Successful tutoring is predicated on positive, supportive communication

between students, parents, teachers, school administrators and tutors, each of whom must communicate their goals and expectations from the beginning of the process.

Each student learns in a unique way.

The joy and benefit of working with students individually is that it allows our tutors to uncover our students' best learning approach and custom design a plan that integrates this approach.

Our students learn "with" their tutors

Our tutors are both academically astute in the subjects they teach and compassionate human beings who have extensive experience with the struggles of adolescence. We see our job as teaching to fit our students' styles and personalities and thereby help our students feel respected and valued as whole individuals.

Feeling both respected and responsible

is integral to a student's improved sense of self, both academically and personally. Helping students succeed by becoming conscious of and taking responsibility for their choices as they move through school and adolescence is a fundamental aspect of the educational process here.

Experiencing joy in their academic and personal successes

is the result of our students' increased sense of independence and self-respect that is fostered during their time at blue tomato. Our students like coming here because they are treated with respect and their insights about their own learning is integrated whenever possible.

Our educational philosophy is rooted in the belief that when students are taught to understand their own role in their success, they leave blue tomato with the ability to positively impact their future.

Ellen Ross - Director, blue tomato

Ellen Ross
Director, blue tomato