23rd January 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
During the holidays, many parents believe that their children can use the time off productively in order to boost their academic output. This might mean hiring a private tutor – a recently increasingly lucrative business among undergraduates and graduates desperately searching for a career in the saturated job markets. However, is this laser focus on academic success going to waste?
From the age of six, children are bombarded with constant assessments, examinations and evaluations. The continual need, and perhaps now it is becoming an almost intuitive desire in children to perform and succeed in school and later at university, has led to an unprecedented crescendo in private tuition. Holidays are no longer a time to relax, watch T.V. and play Monopoly with Mum and Dad, but are devoted to hours of extra sums, French verbs and exam techniques.
Understandably, parents want their children to obtain places at the best schools and achieve the highest results they can, but perhaps forcibly holding down their noses to the grindstone is not the way forward. Everyone needs a break, some time to recoup before the next offensive. However, academic success should not be viewed as a battle field never to be left unmanned. Children ought to be allowed the break they deserve combined with some tuition (if needed) to help them iron out those issues not tackled during school teaching time. Compromise is surely the optimum path to success.