9th November 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A parent in New York recently wrote an article in the New York Times about private tuition. The article has a strange message, because the parent doesn’t necessarily disagree with sending one’s children to a tuition centre, or hiring a home tutor, but does suggest that the amount of tutoring that takes place, particularly in New York, is a negative thing.
The suggestion is that education has become like a competitive sport, with parents keen to do anything to give their child the edge over fellow classmates. What used to be a way to help struggling students to catch up has become something that everyone does. The parent says that we’re now faced with the prospect of commissioning tutors simply to keep pace with everyone else who is also using them.
This particular parent spends $240 a month on private tuition for her two children, both aged 10, and doesn’t expect that to change any time soon. Whenever she visits their local tuition centre, she sees queues of new parents and students waiting to sign up to classes. Like many other parents, she would love to stop tutoring altogether, and rely on schools to educate sufficiently, but with the prospect of ‘letting down’ her children, her sentiments are: I’ll stop paying for a tutor, as soon as everyone else does.