Nick Hanson
MANKATO — The Good Counsel Learning Center is stocked with some of the oldest teachers in the Mankato area.
That’s also one of the reasons it’s been around for 40 years.
After a lifelong career in education, retired and semi-retired teachers from the School Sisters of Notre Dame Mankato Province have been dedicating a portion of their week to tutoring struggling students.
And most of the teachers, such as Sister Anna Louise Wilson, have plenty of wisdom to share.
“We’re people that like to teach. We miss the kids,” said Wilson, a retired West St. Paul teacher.
Sisters and students celebrated the center’s 40th birthday earlier this month with a special ceremony and dedication. While preparing for the festivities, the Good Counsel nuns discovered they’ve served more than 1,500 students during the regular school year and about 1,000 during summer school.
Not much has changed at Good Counsel Learning Center through the years.
It’s been housed in a few different locations and the technology has gotten better, but that’s about it.
For about 10 years, the learning center has been in the basement of the Good Counsel convent. An entire floor has been converted into a large learning center — reminiscent of an actual school.
Each of the center’s dozen or so rooms are split up into private cubicles that teachers equip with their favorite learning tools and supplies. There’s also a library and computer lab.
The vast majority of their students who use the center have learning disorders, and in recent years teachers have been helping many who speak English as a second language.
But Good Counsel is open to anyone who wants tutoring — including adults.
Students always receive one-on-one attention, usually once a week for an hour. It’s part of the center’s niche.
Teachers also use innovative techniques to teach.
“We have far more things to do besides pushing a pencil,” said Sister Joann McMahon, the learning center director. “We have a fun way of doing it.”
At $25 a session, and with scholarships available for low-income families, it’s one of the cheapest tutoring services in town, too.
As long as children such as Mackenzie Chester, a shy student who also has epilepsy, benefit from the tutoring service, it’s likely the center will be around for another 40 years.
“She likes the extra help,” said Joyce Chester, her mother. “She’s getting the confidence she needs.”
For more information, or to sign up for tutoring services at the Good Counsel Learning Center, call (507) 389-4229 or e-mail
lcdirector@ssndmankato.org. The center offers help during the summer, as well as the school year.
