Peer Tutoring

Boquet discusses the introduction of the peer tutor into the writing center as a solution to "the call for human contact and the very real fiscal constraints faced by labs" (52). As she presents it, student workers were the cheapest source of labor to be found; they were put to use then their presence was justified by looking to psychology "to provide a philosophical rationale for current writing lab operations" (52). Later on she discusses what a benefit peer tutors were, seemingly despite their origins as cheap labor.

I wonder how accurate this representation is. Did peer tutors enter as monetary solution before they were evaluated as an effective pedagogical tool? That doesn't make us look too good! Peer tutors are so much a part of the landscape of writing centers now that I cannot imagine the WC without them. Are we simply used to them? Should we reevaluate their usefulness? Am I making too much of this presentation of the order of importance Boquet gives to peer tutoring's origins?