Tutoring kids who don’t need it is a booming business, writes Pawan Dhingra, an Amherst sociology and American Studies professor, on The Conversation. Well-off, well-educated parents will pay tutoring centers to turn Aidan and Emma from A to A+ students.
Kumon bills itself as “learning enrichment” rather than “tutoring.”
Dhingra is the author of Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough, which looks at the “education arms race.”
White professionals who enroll their children in after-school learning centers don’t think they’re advantaging the advantaged, his research has found. Affluent parents worry about raising spoiled, entitled children and believe they’re instilling the value of hard work and emulating Asian American “education parents” and “Tiger Moms.”
“Franchised chains of after-school learning centers, such as Kumon, Sylvan, Kaplan and Mathnasium,” charge about $200 per month for math and reading lessons once or twice a week. The curriculum and homework assignments are “intended to be more challenging than what is offered by the schools,” writes Dhingra.
Where I live in Silicon Valley, tutoring centers are ubiquitous: There’s almost always Chinese lettering on the windows.
Near where I grew up, membership in a “tutoring lounge” costs $250 a month, reports Andrea Guthmann in Chicago Tribune. Parents aren’t allowed.
Sixth- through 12th-graders are gathering on colorful floor pillows, swinging chairs, modern comfy couches and glass-walled rooms with fireplaces where they can study together. Come 4:30 p.m., the music is turned down, and a team of tutors starts roaming about to see who needs help, similar to an Apple Genius Bar. Five- to 10-minute tutoring is included in the monthly membership. Kids who need more time can book half-hour increments for $50 at the touch of a button, on a custom-designed app called homework.sucks.
Too much help can hurt teens, says Lisa Micele, director of college counseling at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School in Urbana. “When they rely on outside help to keep them organized, push them ahead and coach them on every test, I worry about their self-advocacy and time management skills.”
