I'm very skeptical of these money-making outfits. As a p.s. teacher, I can tell you that nearly 100% of the trouble students have in my class is from not knowing how to manage time or keep a planner. A good teacher--whether it be in a p.s. or a homeschool--should be able to help with this.

I'd also say that a parent with a copy of my syllabus and my email address/phone number is better off than one with the money to spend on companies like Sylvan.

Noel,

Are you serious? "As a p.s. teacher, I can tell you that nearly 100% of the trouble students have in my class is from not knowing how to manage time or keep a planner."

What, no trouble with thought control, intellectual and emotional dependency, obedience, subservience nor state worship --- the *real* curriculum of the "ps"?

You sound just like the bureaucrats in my son's former ps, who told us that "mastering the curriculum is only 20% of the grading criterion." They thought that using the "planner" would enable him to follow his masters' wishes *to the T*.

Gack !!!

Believe it or not, I DON'T have trouble with the things you mention. They're not expected in my classroom (least of all state worship, as my refusing to stand for the pledge of allegiance might convince you.)

Yeah, keeping a planner is pretty important, not just in school but in life in general. Keeping appointments, meeting deadlines, I've noticed those are pretty essential to success in all fields.

My friend went through the same as you did, they spent a small fortune at Sylvan. Their son (gr.5) barely showed any improvement. She decided to use Writing Road to Reading with him after school. She pulled her son after the first month of gr.6 and homeschooled him. Three weeks later another friend and I pulled our kiddos. We teamed up and a little over a decade later they're all doing just fine in their career choices.

Sylvan advertises CONSTANTLY on the tv up here. There must be a market or they (private learning centers) wouldn't exist

SAT prep samples and books can be purchased or some libraries have them and many other test brand names to prepare kids. Kiddo had/has the LSAT book with test samples. Parents can teach (guide) their own children, perhaps they've been lead to believe that without certification they aren't qualified

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My wife spent $4k on my step-son @Sylvan and I'd have to say it's not worth the cost. I think you can get the same results hiring a private turor for le$$. They simply do more one-on-one work which public schools don't. However, they do a whole lot of (gimmicks) with "incentives" to keep the kids enticed---points for prizes after several lessons are completed. I really was not impressed.
An friend of mine sent his son to Kumon Learning Center and was happy with the results, but I don't know if they use gimmicks. He said they do require at-home exercises for parents to do with the child together.
These are for-profit franchises which, IMO, do no more than what parents could do themselves if they weren't already "convinced" that they couldn't or weren't "qualified/trained" to.
For older kids they teach SAT prep, but there also, I think you can pay less elsewhere for test-taking skills.

Raul

My mother used to work for Sylvan a number of years ago as one of their "tutors," and I can tell you it represented the quintessential "factory" operation, even more so than the public schools. For one, they pay their tutors approx. $10/hr (that was several years ago, but I don't think much has changed)
and they charge their clients something like $40/hr, so there's quite the profit to be made, but not by the people doing most of the work. Needless to say, tutors are treated much like cattle in the same way that the clients are, you are assessed more on the quantity of output, etc. The work is extremely formulaic in the ole' kill and drill style.

Thanks Karen. You just confirmed what my friend felt.

Ten years ago, my neighbor quit (fed up) teaching in ps and started tutoring at $15/half hour, traveling to peoples' homes to help children mainly with their homework. She couldn't believe the load of homework the kids had. Said; "it's no wonder the kids were turned off, they were burned out in Jr.High already."

Her business is booming so much that her husband was able to quit his job and stay home with their kids.

I like your statement, "The work is extremely formulaic in the ole' kill and drill style."

Teacher (home ed friend) used to say something like, they're throwing everything at em' to see what sticks She taught in another province 30 years ago in a Gr.1 to 6 , one room school by herself and her kids learned the skills needed to forge forward, unlike what is going on now. Teachers shouldn't be expected to teach some of the garbage the boards expect, nor should they be baby sitters and social workers, and let's not forget refereeing, and I'm not talking sports. In thee olden daze, teachers had a say in what NEW curriculum was brought into their classroom.

Ooops didn't mean to get carried away, I'll pass the soapbox on

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My mother used to work for Sylvan a number of years ago as one of their "tutors," and I can tell you it represented the quintessential "factory" operation, even more so than the public schools. For one, they pay their tutors approx. $10/hr (that was several years ago, but I don't think much has changed)
and they charge their clients something like $40/hr, so there's quite the profit to be made, but not by the people doing most of the work. Needless to say, tutors are treated much like cattle in the same way that the clients are, you are assessed more on the quantity of output, etc. The work is extremely formulaic in the ole' kill and drill style.

Bobby,

Anytime. I think the same goes for many of the "copy cat" Sylvan organizations, like Kumon and Score. Score relies heavily on computers so clients can practice their "independence" in learning.

As a teacher of autistic students, I see desperate parents running to these organizations and coughing up a lot of cash, but I wonder how much of a social pressure issue it is more than anything else. A lot of these orgs are playing directly into fears about standardized testing, etc.

Your comment "A lot of these orgs are playing directly into fears about standardized testing, etc."

Watching Sylvans' advertizing does exactly what you wrote. Playing the "fear" game to desperate parents.
IMHO I think the system is "test crazed". I found myself sucked into that frame of mind when we first began homescholaring our crew over a decade ago. Spent far too much time photo copying standardized tests at the university teachers library. I actually created curriculum based around the
tests My "fear" was our kids had to learn what their peers (ps) were learning or they weren't learning. Does that make sense

Real learning happened when I quit worrying about those exams. Amazing results when they were given freedom to explore. We combined Language arts with social studies to avoid like Nancy wrote " a bunch of blather " . Math also blended in well with the sciences.

Special ed teachers are lucky here, their students can be exempted from writing standardized tests which gives the teacher freedom to actually teach based on the students needs. The elementry school had 300 kids over 100 were in special ed In a lot of cases, there was nothing wrong with the kids but the label "special ed" , fetches the school board a lot more $$$Money$$$$ It's too bad that parents can't see the connection.

A teacher was let go (fired) a few years ago here. Guess what she's doing now...... writting standardized tests for the government . Ahhhh yes, the blind leading the blind

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Bobby,

Anytime. I think the same goes for many of the "copy cat" Sylvan organizations, like Kumon and Score. Score relies heavily on computers so clients can practice their "independence" in learning.

As a teacher of autistic students, I see desperate parents running to these organizations and coughing up a lot of cash, but I wonder how much of a social pressure issue it is more than anything else. A lot of these orgs are playing directly into fears about standardized testing, etc.

The only thing that I've heard about them is that they supposedly stole a friend of mine's free spelling system that she'd put online for anyone who wanted to use it, and made it their own.

If you're interested in what the National Councils of teachers of every subject matter say should be learned from preschool until secondary graduation, you might want to look at the compendium that mcrel.org has put up on its website (also free).

As for the teacher, Noel I think it was, who said that he gives his syllabus and phone number to each parent--kudos to you, but not every teacher does that.

I think that if you asked the schools for a detailed curriculum, you'd be shocked to find that they don't have one. They might have a bunch of blather that a bunch of teachers threw together over vacation time on stipend pay, but as for measurable learning objectives, tied to classroom instruction and learning materials, tied to the end-of-year achievement tests--well, it's probably not there. So you may want to raise hell at your schools until it IS there. Why should you have to pay extra if the schools aren't doing their job?

Nancy

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Has anyone used this company or know anything about it?