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Battling the homework juggernaut

TRALEE PEARCE

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 12:44 AM EST 27/02/08

One in three parents are now paying up to $70 an hour for private tutors - whether their kids are flunking out or not ...Read the full article

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  1. C Gardner from Canada writes: I wonder how much these third party tutors pay their staff?
    I know someone who's getting pretty fed up teaching in the public system...
  2. JawBone Hamilton from Canada writes: Top ones working in a franchise will make up to $20 an hour. It's nothing compared to what unionized teachers make, but the hours are more flexible, there's less stress, and no politics.
  3. A O from Manitoba, Canada writes: Unfortunately in this business 'flexible hours' means evenings and weekends, meaning the tutor is the one being flexible not the hours. When you are making less than $20 and hour there is a lot more stress. When parents are paying up to $70 an hour and staff are making up to $20 maybe parents should try and hire the tutors directly, maybe an older student who has a love of learning.
  4. pants 7 from Japan writes: There are two keys to making sure your children do well at school; free unscripted play and a good night's sleep. Private tutors are not only a waste of time but the end final result is worse.
    Instead of throwing their money away, parents should be demanding the schools reduce the amount of homework!
    Its obvious to everyone that children's bodies develop at different rates; so do their brains. The brain, in particular, the frontal lobe continues to develop until the age of 20. The frontal lobe controls impulse control, judgment, language production, working memory, motor function, sexual behavior, socialization, problem solving initiation, facial movement, planning abilities, coordinating, and motivation. If your kid seems a bit behind at age 17 it is just probably because his/her brain is developing at a slower pace.
    More homework for children means less play and less sleep and the end result is a young adult that is basically brain damaged because their frontal lobe did not fully develop.
  5. Woman of Reason from London, UK, Canada writes: My husband charged $35 - $40 an hour as a private math/science tutor in Vancouver. He advertised privately at first and then got other clients through referral. All of his students were from wealthy Korean families and they were enrolled in every sort of after school enrichment activity. Most of them were good students, many of them were already getting As, but with my husband's help, some were able to win prestigious math competitions, and one even challenged the provincial math exam without doing the course work, saving his tuition fees at St. George's college. Those students who achieve top marks, above 90%, often win lucrative scholarships so paying for a tutor to help an already bright student achieve very high marks could save a parent money down the road.
  6. Woman of Reason from London, UK, Canada writes: One more comment... If you're looking for a good tutor, someone with a math or science background that really knows their stuff, then don't bother with the tutoring schools. $15-$20/hour is what they pay and I don't think there are very many people with a good facility in maths or sciences who will work for that.
  7. Peter Dawson from Canada writes: I am a bit curious about where the 'one in three' statistic comes from. It sounds a bit high, and the article fails to describe the sampling methodology, or the scope of the sample.
  8. K Kal from toronto, Canada writes: soon they will need tutors for tutors

    if you want to give your kids an 'edge' then teach them common sense and respect for others, but dont stop there, teach them to be resourceful, what happens when they have to fend for themselves, are they going to go running to a tutor? give me a break

    my experience with 'tutored' kids is that they are generally dumb as bricks, all this tutoring, private school, extra lessons blah blah but still cant read an outline and produce a working report/essay/project from it!

    the only tutor a kid needs are parents and family members!
  9. John Smith from Canada writes: One might question the parents rather than the schools. My children are in a demanding french immersion program. They are neither swamped by homework or doing poorly (indeed, straight As for two of three with the younger building momentum to do same). They breeze provincial testing. For many of these parents, they perhaps failed their children by not stimulating their learning interest while young (or as pants 7 notes, encourage a good sleep schedule) - now they panic because lo and behold, their children trail the pack. Conversely, they are driving their children to high levels of stress to do more and more. Certainly there might be times when a tutor is required for some, but as a general trend I think we are seeing the failure of many parents, not their children. Tutoring for parents might be a better $70 investment.
  10. pants 7 from Japan writes: Woman of Reason from London is correct in that rare, extremely bright students can gain a lot from tutoring. However, if regular children are put through this it tends to compound the problem. They feel no need to listen to their teacher at school, disrupt the class because they think they know everything and belittle the kids that need to listen to the teacher. So they need more tutoring because they do nothing at school and have the concentration of a gnat. There is a reason why Japan has more than 2 000 000 youths locked up in their rooms, about the highest youth suicide rate in the world, an epidemic of depression and the lowest level university graduates in the industrial world. Not to mention all the really creepy young men collecting Hello Kitty trading cards.
    If your child is not a genius and is really not in need of special help forget tutoring or just home school your kid.
    And you know what, your child will indeed learn a lot by getting an F grade on their report; an invaluable lesson.
    Probably the best solution is to close the schools and have the government pay to have each student tutored.
  11. Jimmy K from Toronto, Canada writes: Yes, I agree with many of the above posters. All students should not be forced to do this kind of homework, homework should be abolished. I mean, if your kid is stupidand is just going to begin a career in 6 years as a fast food industry cashier, they are just wasting their time doing this homework and getting educated, they should just enjoy the few years of fun they have left before they enter a world if minimum wage misery for the rest of their lives. Perhaps at a young age we could test students, and give the stupidones no homework, so their equally stupidparents would stop complaining. However, all the other smart students who have ambition and want to go somewhere in life, leave things as is, give them homework. Sound like a reasonable compromise?
  12. pants 7 from Japan writes: Jimmy K doesn't no a darn thing and neither does the Globe.
    The highest rated students on the planet, Finnish, don't even start school until they are 7, have really short school days and don't get extra homework shoved down their throats.
  13. katie Impett from kelowna, Canada writes: I think this article is very interesting. I am a second year university student in history. I was tutored in math for several years because I hated doing it. My tutor was a friend of a friend of my mother's and was also a recent education student graduate. He helped me boost my grades from C- to A, which is absolutely invaluable. Now I am a tutor for some high school friends that I know. I am helping two of them with Socials Studies (aka history, my future degree) and after the first time helping them, they said 'I love socials!' I also help out in a local middle school with the Homework Club, where I help students in whatever they are struggling with. The Homework Club is organized by several teachers who choose to take extra time (I don't know whether they are paid or not) to help kids during the after school time and talk to other teachers, who the students for some reason might feel intimidated by. Altogether, I love tutoring. The feeling that I have when I know that I have helped a student, even if it is a small portion of one assignment, is amazing. I have even helped several students in homework club with MATH, which is what I was tutored for when I was their age! I think that universities are the best source for good tutors, especially education students because tutoring is like practice for them. Middle and high school kids are inspired by the older students because of their knowledge, experience and maybe even ambition. Grade twelve students would probably love to be tutored by university students because they can hear about what university is like. Plus, university students are ALWAYS looking for extra income.
  14. katie Impett from kelowna, Canada writes: I think that an important aspect of a tutor is that the student likes the tutor, or they might even be friends. For example, I am now friends with my math tutor from so long ago. I was also friends with the girls I tutor in socials, before I started tutoring them. They asked me to help them because they were asking about what I do in school and when I said history, they said 'help us, pleeeease!' I think that when the student and tutor can walk away after doing homework and be just friends, that is when both of them will get the most out of the experience.
  15. Rollo Tomasi from Belgium writes: After reading the article it sounds like the public school system is failing because there is strong demand for outside help.

    Pants 7, scandanavian kids catch up to their continental peers at 12 or 13 and soon overtake them, and have much lower rate of juvenile delinquency.

    Katie Impett, lucky are those who live in university towns because students will work happily for $15-20 under-the-table to produce the good results that you report. I doubt that the teachers in the Homework club get paid for their devotion.

    My 2 cents: get rid of computers in primary school, teach the 3 Rs (writing, reading, and 'rithmetic) and don't start homework until grade 4.
  16. Will Partridge from Delhi, Canada writes: Jimmy K, you're not even half as smart as you think you are. You should lose your arrogance and learn a bit about the topic at hand before you further embarrass yourself.

    There is no problem with remedial homework assigned to students who need it, but general busy-work handed out by teachers who already have six hours a day to teach lessons is counterproductive.

    For one thing, a working parent's time with their child is limited and precious and the schools have no business dictating how that time is spent. For another, repeated studies in Europe and North America have shown that there is no benefit to mandatory homework. Children perform best when they have a balanced regimen of physical activity, playtime, and academic instruction. Proper nutrition and lots of sleep is very important too.

    Stressing out kids and parents with reams of unnecessary homework doesn't do anything but teach kids to hate school and negelect their physical and social development.
  17. Dan Chadwick from montreal, Canada writes: To all for, against, neutral to this topic get your hands on Alfie Kohn's, 'The Myth of Hommework.
  18. John Smith from Canada writes: Clearly Jimmy K was one of those who qualified for no homework because his stupid remarks show a remarkable lack of knowledge.
  19. Ron Hartlen from Canada writes: Children should be entitled to get all the teaching and help they need from the school system. Otherwise, what happens to a child whose parents strongly want the child to become educated, but are not capable of providing help themselves, and can't afford to buy it.
    Once 'the system' catches on to the idea that it doesn't need to do the job, because parents will buy the education via tutors, a downward spiral commences.
    There's another unspoken issue here. Some parents will buy expensive tutoring, (the more expensive the better), 'because they can'. It also gets the child out of the house, so the parents don't have to give up any of their precious Blackbery time.
    You can't 'buy' being a parent. You have to 'do' being a parent. Maybe that's what the Finns are doing?
  20. paul degen from Canada writes: Kids are hardly in school today.Teachers are too busy taking them on field trips , teaching political agendas, or giving themselves a day off than the three r's .

    I was reading a story that stated the average teacher spends only 90 days in the classroom per year. No wonder.
  21. CD W from Canada writes: Teachers are in school from 8 to 4 or 4:30. But they only teach 3.5 hours a day. Go figure on the students missing out. In my physics class in 1975, my last period teacher would teach with his trench coat on. We figured it was so he could get out fast, I hope he was not a flasher.
  22. A A from Canada writes: Couple of comments and these are based on a discussion with a 12 year old.

    1)I hope that teachers are not just downloading the workload on the students. The impression that I got was teacher gives thems problems in class and they have to figure it out. So are the teachers really teaching or just glorified babysitters just watching over these kids?

    2)Evenings and weekends are spent doing homework. Always staying up late because it's never ending.

    We have to now teach our kids about work/life balance? Something has to change.

    Kudos to the Toronto board for investigating. I bet you there are some teachers quaking in their boots 'cause this report will reveal a lot.

    p.s: There are some amazing teachers out there, just not sure if there are enough of them.
  23. Duh Work Farce Virtually Alive from Canada writes: These huge tutoring corporations like Sylvan and Oxford have done a great job - a great job of taking business away from local freelancers who like knowledge and learning, need the money, like people and tutoring, and believe in community.
  24. Duh Work Farce Virtually Alive from Canada writes: Now that's what I call a juggernaut. The tutoring corporations have plowed under every little freelancer trying to work their way through college making some money tutoring local kids in the community. The company charges $70 an hour and the PHD who imparts 20 years of learning to some poor little rich kid gets a paltry $20. Nasty. And I suppose these same Oxfords and Sylvans tutor kids' courses in community service and ethics...Ha ha.
  25. D B from Canada writes: Years ago I read a letter to the ed. in the G&M that was simplicity itself:
    ' I want the public school system to teach my child to read, write and do mathematics at a grade-appropriate level without the need for hours of homework [and the need for tutors].'

    Cue Jean-Luc Piccard: "Make it so".
  26. guy tozer from Saskatoon, Canada writes: It's not hard to understand why some parents are using tutors for their children. The school system has gone downhill in the past 25 years. Kids nowaday can't even do simple math in their heads at the checkouts, and have you seen application forms filled out by so called "educated" graduates? They can't write, let alone print. Heaven forbid we keep little Johnny or Susie back for a year because they can't understand the program, because it may affect their personality. What a bunch of hogwash. Homework?. Gee, they don't have enought time to play their Xbox 360's or spend half the night "texting" their friends. Parents today kiss butt, to every whim their children come up with, just to "keep peace". Good for Sylvan and Kumon and Montoressi. They saw the niche and jumped on the bandwagon ,when school boards were fighting to see how much money they can get from the government for meetings. It's time to say ,Hey! you can't start at the top. Be real and make kids "earn" their educations, and get their lazy butts from in front of the T.V., and get a life. And don't use "like" for every second word. That really shows your intelligence level. I hated homework ,but it had to be done, and it was done before anything else, and I failed grade 9, but skipped grade 4. Got a college degree and now am retired, so I have been down the path and know where it's at, so don't cry to me about homework!!
  27. Vera Goodman from Calgary, Canada writes: Vera Goodman, Calgary I have written the only Canadian book (that I know of) dealing with the negative consequences of excessive homework and the urgent need to reform the traditions of schooling that are not serving our needs in the 21st Century.

    Keeping students working on schoolwork during the best part of the day as well as evenings, weekends and holidays does nothing to add value to their education. On the other hand, it has many proven negatives both physical and mental. It steals important personal time from both parents and students and instils bad attitudes toward learning.

    I was a teacher for thirty years so I look at the issue from both sides. The name of my book is SIMPLY TOO MUCH HOMEWORK! WHAT CAN WE DO?
  28. Traciatim No_Lastname from Saint John, NB, Canada writes: The name of the game in the world today is efficiency. The children need to step up, or step off. In the old days you had to actually go to the library to do research, now you just fire up google. You can now do in a few hours what took days before sifting through books. Need to write a report, no need to make a rough draft, draft, dry-run and final copy . . . just fire up OpenOffice and edit away, what took hours to correct in the past now takes minutes. Maybe what the kids need is "Less Whiny, More Worky".
  29. whatevah D from Canada writes: Vera Goodman from Calgary, Canada writes: Vera Goodman, Calgary I have written the only Canadian book (that I know of) dealing with the negative consequences of excessive homework and the urgent need to reform the traditions of schooling that are not serving our needs in the 21st Century. Keeping students working on schoolwork during the best part of the day as well as evenings, weekends and holidays does nothing to add value to their education. On the other hand, it has many proven negatives both physical and mental. It steals important personal time from both parents and students and instils bad attitudes toward learning. I was a teacher for thirty years so I look at the issue from both sides. The name of my book is SIMPLY TOO MUCH HOMEWORK! WHAT CAN WE DO? I'm with you Vera. We're not talking about sixth graders here with lots of homework. We're talking about grade ones and twos. The teachers can't possibly teach everything they need to in a day, due to the curriculum demands, therefore it falls to the parents. I don't remember doing hours of homework in grade school; that's not to say I didn't do homework, I did. And I received A's in grade school, high school and university. In grade school I remember a bit of homework and spending most of my evenings and weekends outside playing.
  30. Saul Rosenbluth from Winnipeg, Canada writes: This is utterly revolting -- tandem stupidities destroying young lives:

    1-Governments fail to provide adequate post-secondary options so school pupils and their parents walk a knife's edge to ensure supreme perfection in grades than will lead to acceptance in some program, anywhere.

    2-School boards and governments that allow teachers to take the easy route of providing pro-forma 'schooling' rather than education. This 'schooling' is complete with loads of worthless homework and rampant grade inflation.

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