Former professor is tutor volunteer

The former college professor offers years of invaluable experience.

COLUMBUS (AP) — For decades, Ohio State professor Aage Clausen instructed future politicians on the nuances of congressional voting.

Today, he’s teaching eighth-graders how to turn fractions into decimals.

The 75-year-old, whose name is pronounced “Auggie,” is an oddity walking through the halls of Buckeye Middle School, on the city’s south side. He sports mutton chops and Saucony sneakers in a classroom where gold-colored chains and Air Jordans are cool.

Still, he’s often the first person visitors see when they walk through the school’s front door. The full-time volunteer sits at a table near the entrance, where he helps students one-on-one with lessons in their pre-algebra textbook.

Math teacher Marci Gorenstein said she was shocked when Clausen approached her three years ago and offered to help her students learn math.

“Free tutoring? I was thrilled,” Gorenstein said. “It’s helped immeasurably with kids who can’t concentrate in groups and are embarrassed to ask questions in front of the class.”

Clausen decided to volunteer at Buckeye after meeting Gorenstein through a mutual friend. Over the years, he’s become like an assistant teacher in her classes of nine to 15 students.

While Gorenstein reviews lessons and homework in the classroom, Clausen works with individual students in the hall. When she teaches a new lesson, Clausen gets a head start on that evening’s homework.

“I do my homework so when I come to class [the next day] I know what I’m going to be dealing with,” Clausen said with a laugh. “I’m relearning stuff that I’ve forgotten because I haven’t used it.”

Clausen’s expertise is in the social sciences, but he didn’t want to tutor in a civics class. It would have been challenging to boil down his knowledge for a middle school class, he says.

Still, his experience as a college professor is valuable, school officials said.

“What makes him unique is his skill sets and experiences,” said Columbus City Schools spokesman Jeff Warner. “You don’t have a lot of college professors who volunteer.”

He’s also a rarity in that the vast majority of volunteers in Columbus schools have a child or grandchild enrolled, Warner said.

Grounded and unassuming, Clausen says he’s not trying to change lives. He doesn’t see himself as a mentor or father figure. And he seeks no accolades for his work.

Clausen said he teaches math because it’s good for the economy.

“We have a very strong national need for more mathematical training,” he said.

But Clausen’s students, past and present, insist that his work is more personal than that.

Forty years after taking Clausen’s class at the University of Wisconsin, Ohio State professor Larry Baum said he’s still influenced by what he learned.

“The positive attitude he imparted to students is the single most important thing I learned from him,” Baum said. “He always seemed to be very conscious of thinking about how people learned ... and understanding that students need to be encouraged.”

Clausen’s current students notice the same qualities.

C.J. Fritts, 14, said he was struggling to keep up in his math class. But after he began working with Clausen two or three times a week, “I did 20 times better,” he said.