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Recently in Salon Mothers Who Think

Stealth merchandising
Why is the venerable Scholastic book club company peddling cheesy toys in classrooms?
By Shoshana Marchand
[02/29/00]

Babes in Willy Loman-land
Why does my kid have to sell stuff door-to-door for her school?
By Bob Whitby
[02/29/00]

What kind of mother are you?
Marketing mavens dissect moms for eager advertisers.
By Lisa Moskowitz
[02/28/00]

Shrinks and con men
An unholy alliance of psychologists and advertisers targets kiddie consumers.
By Arthur Allen
[02/28/00]

The series: An introduction
We ponder the family as a marketing bonanza.
By Jennifer Foote Sweeney
[02/28/00]

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I worked tirelessly in my classroom, pushing to the back of my mind the fact that I had made more money waiting tables in college than as a full-time teacher. I got to work early and stayed late. I served on committees and took courses to stay current on the latest educational research. I took pride in my classroom, and as sappy as it sounds, my greatest reward was seeing a child's eyes light up with understanding.

Also Today The family for sale We take a week to examine the ravenous commercial forces that prey on us each day.   Babes in Willie Loman-land Why does my kid have to sell stuff door-to-door for her school? By Bob Whitby   Stealth merchandising Why is the venerable Scholastic book club company peddling cheesy toys in classrooms? By Shoshana Marchand

Unfortunately, for some parents, my combination of hard work and a teaching credential specifically designed for elementary-aged students wasn't enough. Parents who enrolled their children in after-school tutoring programs often questioned my teaching practices and bombarded me with questions about the methodology I employed in the classroom. They called me at home at night for clarification on why an assignment had been structured in a particular way. Instead of trusting me as a professional, they questioned my expertise every step of the way, in part because of the hard-sell techniques the "learning specialists" at after-school programs were feeding them.

Ironically, parents with students in after-school tutoring programs also complained about the amount of homework assigned. For a child enrolled in several hours of after-school tutoring, the one hour (sometimes an hour and a half) I assigned (per my district's guidelines) seemed burdensome. Unfortunately, when kids were forced to choose between classroom assignments and assignments from tutoring programs, it was often the classroom assignments that were rushed through or not completed. After all, their parents were spending a lot of money for those supplemental assignments.

Without exception, the programs are outrageously expensive. The Score program advertises programs on its Web site for "as little as $30 a week." However, when I phoned the location nearest to the elementary school I previously taught in, I was told that in addition to the $100 registration fee, two unscheduled visits a week typically cost $129 a month with a 12-month minimum. That's a total of $1,648 a year.

The Sylvan Learning Center quoted me $150 for the first battery of diagnostic tests and $75 for each additional test by subject. The representative explained to me that parents often prioritized their student's needs in terms of the subject area that needed the most immediate attention and spread the rest of the tests out over a period of several months. Additionally, she explained, there is a onetime $50 registration fee and then tutoring costs of $44 an hour with a two hour per week minimum. She also explained to me that many parents chose to enroll their child for year-round tutoring and that most major credit cards are accepted. A year's worth of tutoring for a child in one subject area at Sylvan Learning Center runs a whopping $4,424.

Obviously, programs like these are available only to a fraction of the population because of the high costs. But the franchised tutoring programs would like parents to believe that almost every child, and certainly your child, needs these programs. The Score Web site, for instance, offers programs for "excellent students who need an extra challenge," for "students who are doing fine in school but have room for improvement in one or more subject areas" and for "students who need immediate assistance in one or more subject areas."

There is no question that some children benefit from after-school tutoring programs. The Web sites for each of these programs are filled with testimonials from satisfied parents, children with boosted confidence and teachers filled with wonder at vast improvements in students' skills in short periods of time.

But in my experience in the classroom, I didn't see any dramatic improvement in the students enrolled in after-school tutoring programs. In fact, one student's progress halted once he enrolled in a tutoring program. He was exhausted and quit working in the classroom as a means of survival.

There are ineffective teachers out there. But for the most part, it's safe to say that your child's teacher has your child's best interests at heart. He or she wants your child to succeed. If your child's teacher is anything like me, he or she probably stays up at night and wakes up first thing in the morning thinking about how to reach your child, how to help your child and how to challenge your child. But your child's teacher is also a professional and wants to be treated like one. And of course, your child's teacher isn't bringing in nearly $44 an hour.
salon.com | Feb. 29, 2000

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