Home tutoring from a School teacher’s point of view
“Private tuition is as old as education itself”. Any student of philosophy knows that Socrates tutored Plato, who tutored Aristotle, who in turn tutored Alexander the Great. As the quote above from emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius attests, the Romans were just as fond of tutoring as the Greeks. Humans have long seen tuition as the most effective way to support a child’s education. It provides them with a personal mentor and role model as well as a teacher.
Today private tuition has lost none of its popularity. It’s estimated that around a quarter of children in the UK receive tuition at some point. Majority of them receive help in advance of important tests, like entrance exams to secondary schools, GCSEs and A Levels. The current appetite for tuition isn’t without its detractors, though.
In Nigeria, many parents ask why they should invest yet more money in their children’s education at home when they are already paying significant sums to world-renowned schools, and the fact that children today are burdened with so many extra-curricular activities – sport, drama, music and everything in between – means that the merits of burdening them further with extra lessons is cast into doubt.
Parents feel that the school teachers have shifted their main priorities to the home teachers. They seek help in the expertise of home tutors because they feel the child isn’t exposed to his full potentials.
Now, as a school teacher/ home tutor, I know the various pros and cons of tutoring makes it difficult for parents to decide whether or not to invest in extra help, and that’s why today we’re going to look at five reasons for tutoring your child.
Tutoring isn’t just about helping children improve their marks at school. Below, we’re going to argue that there are benefits to hiring a tutor that parents might not be aware of. Likewise, tutoring isn’t a panacea to educational problems, and it might do little to change a child’s academic fortunes at times.
To begin with, let’s look at five reasons you might want to hire a tutor for your child.
1) To make sure he/she doesn’t fall behind
Formal education is like teaching a child to ride a bike. It makes little difference if at the end of the year he can’t ride without stabilisers, you still take the bike away and ask him to move onto the unicycle.
The biggest argument for home tuition is it allows your child to be ready for that unicycle when it comes. After all, it’s impossible for classroom teachers to give each child the attention he or she deserves.
At school, you don’t have a choice about your teachers. With home tutors however, the students have a mentor who teaches in the most effective manner for their learning styles.
It goes without saying that falling behind can be disastrous for a child’s education. Particularly if a child is already struggling before they reach secondary school. Poor marks early on can have serious ramifications. Apathy, resentment and bad behaviour are a likely result of not being able to keep up in class.
Having help at home is invaluable in correcting problems that emerge in the classroom. A good tutor will identify a child’s weaknesses and take proactive steps to strengthen them. This might mean going over maths problems, helping to choose the right books, guiding revision, or more generally re-teaching topics that have already been covered in class.
The first reason you should get a tutor then is if you worry your child is falling behind at school. If a teacher says that homework is routinely being done badly, or if your child complains that they’re struggling to understand what’s being studied in class it might be worth enlisting extra help before these problems get out of hand.
2) To provide expert advice with school entrance exams
The second reason for getting a tutor concerns entrance exams. When it comes to applying to top schools it’s not enough to be brilliant at school; there are techniques that every candidate needs to be familiar with to succeed.
For example, in the case of the comprehension section of the 11+ English exam, a strong candidate might still not know how to echo the question, or how to analyse a simile, techniques that are required to achieve a top mark. Choosing a good tutor means having access to a variety of trick and tips that can dramatically improve your child’s score, and potentially be the difference between missing out on a place or getting through to interview.
Tutoring also means having access to more general pedagogical expertise. The most accomplished tutors will have thousands of hours’ experience working with pupils and preparing them for exams. They will have their own special techniques to get the best out of their pupils, can recommend helpful books and resources, and will have a network of other education professionals that parents can turn to for advice.
Furthermore, tutors with experience of school entrance applications will know exactly what needs to be done and by when; they will likely be familiar to school registrars too, making the entire process smoother.
They will also be able to advise the parents on best practice for things like homework and reading. In this regard tutors can be as much a guide and support to parents as they are to their children.
3) To make education personal
Tutoring is not simply a teacher sitting at a desk with a pupil and telling them what to put down onto paper. It’s a personal relationship. Why is this important? Students are able to focus better and are taught in a way that specifically meets their own unique needs because private tuition takes place in small groups or one-to-one.
Well, it’s important because a top tutor is a highly educated, high-achieving, and often highly talented individual. If they’ve graduated from a top university they know what it means to work hard. They know about discipline, about time management and about having a positive attitude.
Introducing your child to such an individual means providing him or her with an excellent role model, and often a friend too. As well as boosting their schoolwork or preparing them for an exam, a tutor might play football with your child, write stories with her, take him to the cinema, introduce her to film and music or teach him a new skill like coding or cooking.
There’s also the fact that in families where both parents work it’s not always possible to be at home supervising the children. In such a situation the support of someone reliable that shares your values and attitudes to education is invaluable.
Tutoring can simply mean extra maths lessons on a Thursday afternoon. But it can also mean your child spending time with someone who invests time in their personal development, teaches them new skills and good habits and is as much a positive role model as a teacher.
4) To make life easier
It’s a fact of life that children argue with their parents, this might be a source of frustration to parents. However, it’s fundamentally important to a child’s development, allowing him to individuate and gradually become independent. There are inevitable tensions when a parent asks their child to sit down and do their homework. Even more so when Mum or Dad floats the idea of doing some extra work in addition to homework.
One of the benefits of tutoring is it allows parents to skip out these tensions. Yes, there might well be objections to the tutor coming over. It’s rare though for children to display same level of opposition to a stranger as they would to a parent. Instead of engaging in a shouting match about maths exercises, the tutor can be the one to soak up any opposition, leaving the parents to enjoy the time they have with their children.
Many parents don’t have the luxury of time to sit down and work through homework with their children. A tutor will make sure that students do their homework on time, freeing both them and their children from stress.
5) To broaden your child’s education
We’ve already discussed how a tutor can be far more than a tutor. A tutor can be far more effective than a classroom teacher in that they don’t have to stick to a prescribed curriculum. A tutor is someone that can guide your child if he/she wants to really explore their subject. If your child expresses an interest in physics and astronomy, why not hire an astrophysics PhD to help them get further into the subject? If they become obsessed with the work of Jane Austen, why not have them talk about 19th century novels with a Cambridge English graduate?
While the western education system compartmentalises ideas and concepts into subjects, the reality is that many academic disciplines are interlinked. It is meaningless to learn history without politics, philosophy and theology, and impossible to dissect biology without chemistry, and chemistry without physics.
A tutor will allow lessons to branch away from the curriculum and embrace wider fields of thought. They will allow lessons to follow the imagination and natural curiosity of the pupil. Thereby fostering greater understanding and making learning something exciting, inspiring and fundamentally enjoyable.
If you’re thinking about getting a tutor, ask first what you can do to improve the situation. You might only have to implement a solid home routine, on a few maths problems every morning and reading at night. Those problems will disappear without any money being spent.
Food For Thought:
Not every child needs private tutoring. A student said he found out that if he pays attention in class when the teacher is teaching, it is adequate to see him through his lessons and homework. And if he has any doubt, he can always ask the teacher concerned.
‘Today, most of the things taught in school are not too difficult to follow’, he said as long as he does not neglect his work. Mathematics, Science, Geography, History, English and Bahasa Malaysia are not that difficult to handle provided he takes an interest in them and put in some genuine effort. I can get through my examinations without any problem.
Something he said got me thinking. He said ‘I notice that my classmates who take private tuition are usually not interested in their studies. In class they have a ‘couldn’t-be ‘bothered’ attitude thinking that their tuition teachers will cover the lessons for them later. What they do not realise is that it is so much easier to pay attention in class than having to spend extra time in the afternoons just to cover up for the wasted time in school. They can spend the extra time on more constructive things than repeating a lesson’.
I would say these are really strong observations from a student. The school teachers will always teach because they have a set curriculum, but external and personal factors will affect the assimilation process of the child. So as a teacher, parents should not jump in to blame school teachers at the slightest chance of a problem. Rather, they should find out what the root of the problem is before making hasty decisions made in panicked moments.
I have to concede that not everyone has the same ability or intelligence. Some students may need extra tutoring for better understanding. But remember, the teachers in school are always there to help if we bother to ask them. The school has paid for their services. If need be, both parties can discuss the need for extra help.
Finally, this little food for thought: Researchers have proven that people learn more effectively in environments in which they are more comfortable. Capitalize on this by bringing education into your home if you feel it is necessary!
References
www.mytutor.co.uk
www.leadership-puzzle.com
www.ukstudycentre.co.uk
www.theguardian.com
www.telegraph.co.uk
