Pasha Durr teaches Brooklyn high school students in their homes when they’re unable to physically attend school.

Why do some students need home instruction?

Students need home instruction when they can’t attend a brick-and-mortar school for physical or psychological reasons. For example, if a student has an injury, like a broken leg, and the school can’t provide accommodations, the student would receive home instruction. Psychological reasons include anxiety and post-traumatic stress.

For how long do you typically teach a student at home?

Most of the students I teach receive home instruction for a set period — typically from four weeks to a full semester — before returning to physical school.

What’s a typical day like as a home instruction teacher?

I usually have three students at a given time, and I see each of them for two hours per day. I drive between students’ homes. I’m a humanities teacher, so the classes I teach are English and social studies.

What is it like when students leave the program and return to a brick-and-mortar school?

It’s bittersweet because we develop a bond, and then they return to school, and I miss them. But I love to see students return to school because it means they’ve healed. When I see them return to school after making progress both physically and academically, I take comfort in knowing they’ll be OK.

I had one student about four years ago who was a young man recovering from a gunshot wound. It was a very bleak situation. When I first met him, he could only lay on his stomach because the wound was on his back. Because of nerve damage, he couldn’t write, so I got him an accommodation for a scribe. As we worked together, he slowly started getting better. He sat up, then started walking again. Eventually he wanted to go back to school, finish out his last month and graduate from high school on time. I was very proud, and I went to his graduation. He walked across the stage to get his diploma, and he got a standing ovation. That was a highlight in my career.

When students are physically injured or psychologically struggling, are they interested in school work?

Yes! My first-ever home instruction student was a 16-year-old who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. I took this student on as a per-diem assignment. He was so happy I was there. It reignited my passion as an educator and motivated me to become a full-time home instruction teacher. This young man was in bed all day or going to the doctor, and I was a break from his norm. When I’d arrive on days he wasn’t feeling well, his mom would tell me he might not be up for a lesson, and I’d hear him calling from his room, “Is that the teacher? I want a lesson!” My favorite part of home instruction is being a silver lining in a student’s day.

What’s the biggest difference between home instruction and classroom instruction?

The biggest difference is the instruction is 1:1. In a classroom, you have to have more structure. With home instruction, most of the time, it’s more conversational.

And there’s no pressure of a classroom, of an audience, so my students don’t feel as nervous. I take advantage of that to help them open up.

I don’t sprinkle pixie dust — change is gradual. Over time, I try to teach my students not what to think, but how to think.

—As told to Hannah Brown