Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that tutoring services aimed at school-aged students was for those struggling in a particular subject area. It was meant to be corrective. That’s how I always thought of it.
In fact I was feeling pretty smug about the fact that none of my kids had required tutoring so far.
So you can imagine my surprise when my friend whose son got into a selective school told me that his new teacher had to tell the class to limit their tutoring sessions to once or twice a week, so they can “have a childhood”.
But these kids are already smart. Some of them are geniuses. Why would they need tutoring?
It turns out there are two main reasons:
- Because their parents are really competitive and want them to get ahead of the pack
- Because these kids really, really love learning and school is not enough for them.
Who are these smart, Stepford children? It’s like discovering a whole new world.
8 ways to nail homework when you don’t have a clue. Article continues…
I, like most parents, live in the “normal” world whereby my children often fake illnesses to get out of school and whinge and moan whenever they have to do homework.
Apparently it’s called “tutoring for extension” as opposed to “tutoring for support”.
Top Comments
Smug that none of your children require tutoring? It was only a couple of months ago you wrote an article that your daughters spelling and reading ability was well below par and all three of your children disliked homework and the youngest two had to be bribed to do it.
That doesn't sound like a very healthy relationship with school to me sadly.
@joabi RE:.Tutoring
My daughter has had a tutor (the same one) coming to our home for the last three years. She's amazing. My daughter does 'Distance education by choice' which is essentially 'school at home' (NOT Homeschooling as some people might refer to which is religious based schooling)
Distance Ed is overseen by QLD education and my daughter does all the normal subjects and requirements that an 'onsite' school do. It's all the same. It's working extremely well & as a parent I find that she gets a more concentrated learning experience from it and it teaches her responsibility to get up & organise her day for her lessons. If you can imagine that in a normal 'onsite' school classroom the teacher has 50 mins to teach a class of 35 kids a particular lesson, now add into that mix classroom interruptions, unruly kids, teacher needs to answer a phonecall etc etc. How much time do you think each child needs to learn that particular lesson? My daughter logs into a class with approx 8-10 students. She also gets one on one if she needs it AND HERE's WHERE THE TUTORING GETS FACTORED IN. She gets a tutor 3 times a week to help her with the work she's unsure of. This all equals a more intensified learning experience. I would never go back to an 'onsite' school and this is the way learning should go. It teaches the individual child how to 'step up to the plate' and take on his/her learning responsibilities. With the help from a TUTOR.