Did you know that tutoring has become a $4 billion dollar industry? School instruction alone is proving insufficient to meet children's needs. Parent-tutors, says professional tutor Marina Ruben, can fill the gap.
Marina Koestler Ruben is an in-house writing tutor at the Sidwell Friends School where the Obama children attend. Despite her profession, Ruben believes that "the best tutor a child can have is his or her own parent."
Ruben's new book How to Tutor Your Own Child (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2011) is a guide to empower parents to build a caring, low-pressure one-on-one educational relationship with their children. It's not about homeschooling. It's about home-tutoring, or a "tutoring lifestyle."
A Tutoring Lifestyle
Ruben describes her vision of parent-tutors who "provide holistic, low-pressure academic support, engagement, and enrichment for their children. They are supportive and inspirational, and they believe in the importance of creating an intellectually stimulating environment in the home. Day in and day out, they can see their children learn and develop, and as a student's desire and capacity for knowledge grow, the parent-child relationship grows as well."
This is a refreshing stance for a professional in the education industry. Ruben truly puts the child's interests first.
"Tutoring is not torture" she says, "It's shared learning." She defines tutoring as "the process of turning children into lifelong learners and is, therefore, a form of high-quality parenting."
Who is the Book for?
Tutor Your Own is for for anyone who wants to provide one-on-one support to a child, although Ruben generally addresses the parents of a child for whom school instruction alone is proving insufficient to meet the child's needs.
As Gerald Richards, CEO of 826 National volunteer tutoring organizations, said in the Foreward: "...tutoring can be scary. Having that young face look at you hoping you have all the answers can be an intimidating experience."
Whether you don't know where to start or just want to hone your skills, this book could be for you.
Fans of self-directed or child-led homeschooling will undoubtedly recognize many of Ruben's sentiments. She sets up tutoring as a way to foster independent learning and confidence as children grow.
Ruben acknowledges that not all tips and techniques will suit each family. She recommends that you pick and choose what works for the child and the moment to enhance your family's shared learning experiences.
Sara McGrath - Sara is a veteran homeschool mom of three, Usborne consultant, and the author of Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning.
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