Does tutoring add up?

  • Posted on: 5 September 2012
  • By: Johanna

Welcome back to school, for most students across the country. September is a time of great change for students and families, and media focuses a great deal on education at this time of year.

The Tyee, a BC independent on-line magazine, ran an article about tutoring: "Does the Tutor 'Advantage' Really Add Up?” It doesn't really make any conclusions, but does take a balanced look at both the pros and cons of tutoring.

Personally, I have mixed feelings on tutoring services. This may seem odd, as I run a business that entirely depends on the demand for tutoring. I believe in a strong public education system equally accessible to everyone. I know that not everyone can afford a private tutor, and this increases disparity between students.

Tutoring isn't always perfect either. Just like with teachers, there are many good and competent tutors, there are some really great tutors, and a few bad tutors. Sometimes it comes down to personality match and attitude of the student. Unlike a teacher in a classroom which you are stuck with for the duration, you can totally customize tutoring services. Like so many decisions we make in life, you need to check out your options. People test drive many cars before settling on one, I encourage parents and students to try out more than one tutor. If private tutoring doesn't work you may want to look at other options that will work better for the student. Perhaps there are resources at the school to help, or perhaps on-line learning is useful.

I was on a trip to Finland this last summer and describing findAtutor.ca to people there. They really had a hard time understanding what my business is about. Finland is considered to have one of the best education systems in the world and seeking a tutor outside of the school system seems to be unknown to them.

In the mean time, here we are stuck with what we have. The article references a study that I also link to on the “Why hire a tutor?” page. In 2007 a third of Canadian parents reported hiring a private tutor. There are many reasons to hire a tutor, but simply hiring a tutor doesn't provide all the answers, as discussed in the article. Students who get unmotivated to learn in class or do homework because they count on the tutor to walk them through it, or worse, do their homework for them (usually disguised as going over it “with” the tutor, but really copying what the tutor shows them and handing it in as their own work) is not going to help. It's important for parents and tutors to keep an open dialogue on what students need to do to keep studies going between tutoring sessions. More tutoring shouldn't be the only answer.

If you're reading this article, you likely are visiting findAtutor.ca because you are looking for a tutor. There are lots of tutors to choose from here! Start by visiting our “How to...” page. There are links to several different pages of information about why to hire a tutor, what to ask a tutor, and some of the different types of tutoring options to consider. Come back to the “How to...” page to learn how to search the list and start looking for a tutor. Most importantly, stay in touch with your child's education, make sure it's well balance at school and home in addition to tutoring.

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