By the third day, the English instructor told me I could take the final and needn't bother coming in after that. She told me I could, “get an extra hour of sleep”. After I explained that I still had to be an earlier class, she asked me if I'd be interested in doing some tutoring in the English class. I couldn't have guessed what I would find.
Most of the students were fresh from high school. From their work I would have guessed third grade. After the quarter I'd like to think they benefited from the from the tutoring. I know I did. It really open my eyes to how far public schools had declined in the 12 years since I graduated. I can only imagine where it is today.
I’m 9 years younger than you & went straight to college after HS. Like you, 1st semester included English Composition with many of my peers. I came to find out I was miles ahead of most of them because my senior English teacher basically taught the freshman college course & used a college text that taught the basics of the thesis statement and exposition by example. I had multiple fellow students tell me that they had no such instruction in HS. I didn’t get to be a formal tutor for the class but certainly did it informally.
My HS was small town OK with my senior class graduating 42 students. It was all about a teacher who cared & knew the requirements for the next level.
Oops, I left out a few letters. Maybe some remedial typing would help.......