In light of my frequent extreme boredom and low cash flow, I decided to put up an ad for English tutoring lessons. I got a good response, and now tutor several times per week.
Tutoring has been a lot more gratifying than teaching for several reasons...
First, my school is on an every-other-week schedule; weeks are called either Q1 or Q2. A few classes I teach every week, but most I teach only every two weeks. Combine that with all the vacations, strikes, plus the fact that I am not even here for a full academic year, and I will see some of my students only a dozen times the whole year. I can't even keep track of all their names, nevermind their progress.
When I tutor, I get to know my students more in-depth. I know what their strengths and weaknesses in the language are, and can focus on what they need help with. I can see them progress in one session. This is why people want to teach, I think. To watch people evolve.
Second, while most of my students are polite enough, many of them are apathetic. This is no surprise since they are teenagers. They also live in the country, not a city where English might be more utilized. I'm not sure they see any point in learning this language, and maybe rightly so. I am sure most high school students at Waterford High in Connecticut didn't see the point in learning a second language. When would we ever have used it?
In contrast, my tutoring students are invested, both personally and financially. They WANT to learn English - and they're paying me. They're engaged, responsive, and inquisitive. Sometimes this is challenging (like when they bring up a question I am not sure how to answer), but that's fun for me. Because I'm invested too.
This got me thinking about the differences in the higher education systems in the US and France. I explained one day to my students that going to Harvard University would set you back at least $40,000 without a scholarship (and that this was true of most private universities). This was literally incomprehensible to them. Higher education in France is usually, if not all the time, free. Much like health care, it's seen as a right, not as a privilege. Students pay for books, housing, and food, but tuition is covered. You just enroll.
This makes me wonder: Are US students more invested in their college education?
If we're speaking in strictly economic terms, then yes, I suppose the population as a whole is more invested. But on any given campus, there are students on full rides of all sorts - academic, athletic, or because of some wacky talent or writing contest they won. Also, some students come from families that don't need to worry about the cost of education. As long as their parents are footing the bill and still putting dinner on the table, how much do they really care? But there are plenty of students who work at least one job in addition to going to school full-time, and they still take out loans to pay for education. And there are plenty more who don't go to college at all because of the cost.
I recently watched Steve Jobs speak at Stanford's commencement ceremony on Ted.com. As most people know, Steve Jobs (the Apple guy) dropped out of college and pioneered the most user-friendly and beautifully-designed personal computer in the world - and then founded Pixar. He didn't come from money, and he felt guilty spending his parents' savings when he didn't see the point. He dropped out and started dropping in on classes he was simply interested in, like a calligraphy course, which he credits with inspiring the availability of so many fonts on Macs. I wonder, if his education didn't cost so much, would he have stayed in school and been less motivated by his entrepreneurism? What about Mark Zuckerburg, founder of Facebook, another famous dropout?
All in all, I think there are so many reasons for wanting to succeed in education whether you live in France or the US - the quality of the educators, personal competitive nature, how much your family taught you to value it, how well you've previously performed in school, how much your future career prospects value your academic record... How much money you have personally invested is a motivating factor but I don't think it is as important - In the US, there are state schools and community colleges with lower tuition rates for those on a tighter budget. But for those who see the value in higher education, they are willing to spend even an absurd amount of money to get it.
I am really excited for comments on this post from anyone and everyone, because my view on this is pretty limited by my personal experience. I would love to hear what you think.
Recently in the United States, there have been a number of articles published suggesting that college students learn almost nothing in 2 or in 4 years (http://www.businessinsider.com/its-official-college-students-learn-next-to-nothing-2011-1?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business+Insider+Select&utm_campaign=BI_Select_011811_Personal )
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the study could study 4-year graduates, indicates that many kids graduate but without apparent passion for learning. I saw on television yesterday a new website called "qwiki." The concept is that while most search engines operate on the assumption that queries are generated "as if the searcher were a machine, to be provided with answers that seem quite human. "Qwiki", in contrast assumes that the human starts typing in a keyword in a human way then is presented with an overwhelming, computer-generated , multimedia plethora information on the subject.
So this another question: which learning styles are best for different people? Is the educational experience more exciting if you are involved in the quest of knowlege personally and highly invested in the "detective" part of the search, or are you okay with having it spoon-fed to you so that you can do other things in the time you would have spent learning?
Try this and see if you like it: http://www.qwiki.com/q/#!/United_States