There are too many teachers who should not be teaching; that’s why there are far too many tutors stepping in to fill the slack.
As every principal knows (or ought to know), a good teacher is also a good communicator. But when teacher communicates obfuscation instead of clarity, frustration instead of fun, and grades slide and fall without any resistance to the laws of gravity, what does the panicked parent do but look for a tutor?
In the last 30 years when education began to take a dive, was it sheer coincidence that the business of tutoring became so entrenched that no one bothered to be surprised by the proliferation of tutors?
If teachers where doing their job effectively and well, who would need a tutor?
Only those presumed to be slow, sickly, lazy, overloaded? Yet even the most average kids, as well as the smart ones, are being pushed to study under a tutor. Mostly, for the following reasons. Too much homework. Too many subjects. Too little picked up from teacher. Too late to find another school with a more conducive, les tutor needy environment. And what about principals who, one suspects, tolerates non-performing teachers the better to provide employment to tutors-for-hire?
I have nothing against tutors and everything lousy, uptight teachers who cannot reach the children to open up their minds to the thrill of learning to learn, knowing to know.
But tutors don’t come cheap. Hiring one is like paying for double matriculation? And think of the poor kid spending extra hours after class everyday when he should be out playing, discovering a world out there!
By: MS. VIVIAN S. PIZARRO | Orion Elementary School, Orion, Bataan
