I remember when I first really realized C.S. Lewis was a person and not just an attribution for a seemingly endless assortment of quotes that he had received an education that was not simply classical, but heavily based in tutoring. Ever since I have had the firm conviction that this was "the way" so to speak. Not because it is the most practical solution (what is?) but because it seems to be the most humane and the most effective for those who actually want to learn. Not to mention it also provides a great opportunity for a taste of the communion we all seek. I didn't realize it until later, but I had been doing a sort of tutoring during my undergraduate studies by spending a disproportionate amount of time in my favorite professors offices, asking them questions and seeking their wisdom about a myriad of topics somewhat loosely related to what we were studying. It was the highlight of my undergraduate education and receiving this informal mentorship deeply shaped me in a positive way.
One area, which I think proves your basic point, is practical music-making, when taught individually by gifted teachers to children and young people (even from as young an age as 4, and all the way through higher education). When this kind of tuition exists within an open educational environment, i.e. one that is devoid of pressure and including (rather than excluding) an intellectual element, it does produce ”geniuses" (if you like to use that word). My experience is that the kind of of one-on-one attention these fortunate young musicians receive opens them to the possibility of creative human dialogue in other areas.
This is the model we employ for our homeschooled teen: individual teachers for different subjects, some are hired, some are friends. I also run a group class on philosophy, which allows for discussion and debate.
This sounds absolutely fantastic Marjorie. What have been the fruits? Have you inspired friends to do the same? Why don't more parents do something like this?
One-on-one tuition is excellent, and we believe it is usually the most effective way to promote learning (though some skills and activities of course require group settings). Yet it is rare to find home-educating parents who deliberately choose the tutor-based instructional model of earlier generations as their primary approach to education.
I am not entirely sure why this is the case, as it seems to me one of the most reliable ways to foster high-level learning - hence its long-standing use by cultural and intellectual elites. Among the home-educating parents I know who employ tutors, this is usually done in response to specific challenges, such as anxiety or learning difficulties, rather than because they believe one-on-one instruction offers a better educational model. In my experience, most home-educating parents gravitate towards child-led learning, calling on a tutor only when a particular interest or subject demands specialised expertise.
Meanwhile, families who opt for traditional schooling - and, particularly, private schooling - often do so in the hope of securing a high-quality education for their children. For parents in this category, tutors are largely viewed as supplementary tools to help a child succeed in a particular subject, rather than as a genuine alternative mode of education.
I find the marginal role assigned to individual tuition curious - particularly when one-on-one education can often be organised at a cost comparable to, or even lower than, private schooling. Yet the idea of returning to a more traditional model of one-on-one education seems to strike many parents as archaic, which is a pity. Such families have fully embraced standardised learning and accepted prevailing assumptions about socialisation through school attendance, without seriously questioning the educational and social trade-offs involved.
There’s one quite obvious reason - cost! Most home schoolers are not well off, it’s a low status thing to do. Those with money either put their children in private school, or hire tutors alongside their schooling.
If you know of an affordable way to tutor as a home schooling family, please let me know! We’d love to try it.
That is absolutely true Lawrence - and sorry for suggesting otherwise. For the impact a tutor can make, the cost is reasonable: using online or local directories (local FB, Nextdoor etc) one can usually find a retired teacher who might be willing to help one's kids for £20-30. It's still a big outgoing for families but good value for money nevertheless.
No need to apologize! I found your article on tuition really interesting and gave me food for thought for how we approach our homeschooling. I agree that it really does present potential value for money, we’ll certainly look at it in the future when budget constraints are less tight.
We have set up a program built around classes with friends who do not charge, group classes for some appropriate subjects, and individual online tuition with retired teachers, digital nomads, and people based in lower cost countries. We live in Australia where tutors are usually super expensive, but it is possible to find good people who like to teach and do not charge crazy amounts. And when they are on the costly side, we engage them less frequently, with our daughter working on material between classes. I spend time going through different websites to find affordable tutors because our budget is not huge. So far, fortunately, we have managed to make it work.
Interesting. How did you go about setting up the group classes/get friends involved? We’re very early days with our homeschooling and this is something I’d be very keen to get off the ground for us. Any practical advice would be welcome!
We returned to home education three years ago when our daughter was entering high school. Each year has been a challenging, but hugely rewarding learning experience (including intellectually) for me, never mind for our daughter!
Our first real foray into home ed groups came in the form of a weekly board games event for homeschoolers, which was a wonderful gateway into the HE community. (This is a good guide on how to setup a group https://home-ed.vic.edu.au/starting-a-home-ed-group-or-co-op-an-overview/) There is an active and organised home ed community in our area, but I don’t know whether it is the same for yours.
In the first year of our high school HE, we were following a child-led educational approach which revealed our daughter’s interest in philosophy. It prompted me to develop a philosophy series for teens. The classes started small (only 2 teens) but have grown to around 8 students, which is perfect. I promoted them through facebook groups, but word of mouth has been the big driver.
I’m very proud of these classes. They are incredibly enriching in an educational sense and provide a wonderful social opportunity for the students who lunch together in between the morning text class and the afternoon discussion session, which can get beautifully animated. Here’s a link to our upcoming series… https://events.humanitix.com/the-thought-workshop-from-late-antiquity-to-the-medieval-synthesis)
What a nourishing read! I share your sentiments regarding the current state of education. It is a great disservice to the human call to flourishing, and embodies a debilitating lack of seriousness about intellectual and moral virtue. My alternate route has been looking to the Classical Christian tradition and I had not considered the place that tutoring could have in this. Wonderful.
Evidencing the transformative power of old-school tutoring there is CS Lewis’s affection for his early tutor, whom he nicknamed The Great Knock. Their relationship seems to have been a warm-strict kind of cognitive apprenticeship. Its beginning is almost comic in Lewis’s autobiography: “I said I was surprised at the ‘scenery’ of Surrey; it was much ‘wilder’ than I had expected. ‘Stop!’ shouted Kirk with a suddenness that made me jump. ‘What do you mean by wildness and what grounds had you for not expecting it?’”
Thank you will..our project here in South Oxfordshire..is to establish a school along the same lines as Saint John henry Newman who promoted the tutorial system..
We have to look after this soul first.. the body and mind will follow after .
Hi Terry, good to hear from you! I now remember our meeting with Paul. I'm still based nearby and it would be good to hear of your latest plans if there's any way I can help? Will
Hi Will, I couldn't agree more. I think the key element in really good tutoring which will prove immune to AI is attachment; for the student to form a healthy attachment to the tutor is a prerequisite for meaningful learning and, as you describe, for that broader development of character and intellect. I haven't read Hoel, but perhaps a broader paucity of opportunities for multigenerational attachment with adults who can nourish young people intellectually and socially is part of the current context.
Find your own. I was approached by someone to tutor their children and had no expectations to make it a career. My children had left home and I missed the interaction with the younger generation and we easily found a price that suited us both. That was four years ago and the relationship has thrived. At a certain point I took on more students but have since reduced it down to just the initial family; my reasons for doing this were never financial.
I have no teaching experience but am an avid learner and reader and have much to share. This is especially the case now I've seen at close hand the dreariness of modern day education, and how clever children are under stimulated and over-exposed to screens and junk content. It's a cliché but children are like sponges; expose them to toxic material and they will quickly absorb it, expose them to great art and noble ideas and they will soak up that instead.
I remember when I first really realized C.S. Lewis was a person and not just an attribution for a seemingly endless assortment of quotes that he had received an education that was not simply classical, but heavily based in tutoring. Ever since I have had the firm conviction that this was "the way" so to speak. Not because it is the most practical solution (what is?) but because it seems to be the most humane and the most effective for those who actually want to learn. Not to mention it also provides a great opportunity for a taste of the communion we all seek. I didn't realize it until later, but I had been doing a sort of tutoring during my undergraduate studies by spending a disproportionate amount of time in my favorite professors offices, asking them questions and seeking their wisdom about a myriad of topics somewhat loosely related to what we were studying. It was the highlight of my undergraduate education and receiving this informal mentorship deeply shaped me in a positive way.
Great article!
One area, which I think proves your basic point, is practical music-making, when taught individually by gifted teachers to children and young people (even from as young an age as 4, and all the way through higher education). When this kind of tuition exists within an open educational environment, i.e. one that is devoid of pressure and including (rather than excluding) an intellectual element, it does produce ”geniuses" (if you like to use that word). My experience is that the kind of of one-on-one attention these fortunate young musicians receive opens them to the possibility of creative human dialogue in other areas.
Thanks Mark - great point. I imagine it translates to almost every area of human endeavour in which you need a transmission from experts to neophytes.
This is the model we employ for our homeschooled teen: individual teachers for different subjects, some are hired, some are friends. I also run a group class on philosophy, which allows for discussion and debate.
This sounds absolutely fantastic Marjorie. What have been the fruits? Have you inspired friends to do the same? Why don't more parents do something like this?
One-on-one tuition is excellent, and we believe it is usually the most effective way to promote learning (though some skills and activities of course require group settings). Yet it is rare to find home-educating parents who deliberately choose the tutor-based instructional model of earlier generations as their primary approach to education.
I am not entirely sure why this is the case, as it seems to me one of the most reliable ways to foster high-level learning - hence its long-standing use by cultural and intellectual elites. Among the home-educating parents I know who employ tutors, this is usually done in response to specific challenges, such as anxiety or learning difficulties, rather than because they believe one-on-one instruction offers a better educational model. In my experience, most home-educating parents gravitate towards child-led learning, calling on a tutor only when a particular interest or subject demands specialised expertise.
Meanwhile, families who opt for traditional schooling - and, particularly, private schooling - often do so in the hope of securing a high-quality education for their children. For parents in this category, tutors are largely viewed as supplementary tools to help a child succeed in a particular subject, rather than as a genuine alternative mode of education.
I find the marginal role assigned to individual tuition curious - particularly when one-on-one education can often be organised at a cost comparable to, or even lower than, private schooling. Yet the idea of returning to a more traditional model of one-on-one education seems to strike many parents as archaic, which is a pity. Such families have fully embraced standardised learning and accepted prevailing assumptions about socialisation through school attendance, without seriously questioning the educational and social trade-offs involved.
Perhaps you can change their minds!
There’s one quite obvious reason - cost! Most home schoolers are not well off, it’s a low status thing to do. Those with money either put their children in private school, or hire tutors alongside their schooling.
If you know of an affordable way to tutor as a home schooling family, please let me know! We’d love to try it.
That is absolutely true Lawrence - and sorry for suggesting otherwise. For the impact a tutor can make, the cost is reasonable: using online or local directories (local FB, Nextdoor etc) one can usually find a retired teacher who might be willing to help one's kids for £20-30. It's still a big outgoing for families but good value for money nevertheless.
No need to apologize! I found your article on tuition really interesting and gave me food for thought for how we approach our homeschooling. I agree that it really does present potential value for money, we’ll certainly look at it in the future when budget constraints are less tight.
We have set up a program built around classes with friends who do not charge, group classes for some appropriate subjects, and individual online tuition with retired teachers, digital nomads, and people based in lower cost countries. We live in Australia where tutors are usually super expensive, but it is possible to find good people who like to teach and do not charge crazy amounts. And when they are on the costly side, we engage them less frequently, with our daughter working on material between classes. I spend time going through different websites to find affordable tutors because our budget is not huge. So far, fortunately, we have managed to make it work.
Interesting. How did you go about setting up the group classes/get friends involved? We’re very early days with our homeschooling and this is something I’d be very keen to get off the ground for us. Any practical advice would be welcome!
We returned to home education three years ago when our daughter was entering high school. Each year has been a challenging, but hugely rewarding learning experience (including intellectually) for me, never mind for our daughter!
Our first real foray into home ed groups came in the form of a weekly board games event for homeschoolers, which was a wonderful gateway into the HE community. (This is a good guide on how to setup a group https://home-ed.vic.edu.au/starting-a-home-ed-group-or-co-op-an-overview/) There is an active and organised home ed community in our area, but I don’t know whether it is the same for yours.
In the first year of our high school HE, we were following a child-led educational approach which revealed our daughter’s interest in philosophy. It prompted me to develop a philosophy series for teens. The classes started small (only 2 teens) but have grown to around 8 students, which is perfect. I promoted them through facebook groups, but word of mouth has been the big driver.
I’m very proud of these classes. They are incredibly enriching in an educational sense and provide a wonderful social opportunity for the students who lunch together in between the morning text class and the afternoon discussion session, which can get beautifully animated. Here’s a link to our upcoming series… https://events.humanitix.com/the-thought-workshop-from-late-antiquity-to-the-medieval-synthesis)
What a nourishing read! I share your sentiments regarding the current state of education. It is a great disservice to the human call to flourishing, and embodies a debilitating lack of seriousness about intellectual and moral virtue. My alternate route has been looking to the Classical Christian tradition and I had not considered the place that tutoring could have in this. Wonderful.
Thank you sir
Evidencing the transformative power of old-school tutoring there is CS Lewis’s affection for his early tutor, whom he nicknamed The Great Knock. Their relationship seems to have been a warm-strict kind of cognitive apprenticeship. Its beginning is almost comic in Lewis’s autobiography: “I said I was surprised at the ‘scenery’ of Surrey; it was much ‘wilder’ than I had expected. ‘Stop!’ shouted Kirk with a suddenness that made me jump. ‘What do you mean by wildness and what grounds had you for not expecting it?’”
Thanks Ted. Yes, I loved those passages too. Thanks for the reminder of them.
I am just finishing Old Filth (by Jane Gardam) and there is a Knock-esque tutor in that simply called 'Sir'
A very useful article!
Thank you!
Thank you will..our project here in South Oxfordshire..is to establish a school along the same lines as Saint John henry Newman who promoted the tutorial system..
We have to look after this soul first.. the body and mind will follow after .
Hi Terry, good to hear from you! I now remember our meeting with Paul. I'm still based nearby and it would be good to hear of your latest plans if there's any way I can help? Will
Hi Will, I couldn't agree more. I think the key element in really good tutoring which will prove immune to AI is attachment; for the student to form a healthy attachment to the tutor is a prerequisite for meaningful learning and, as you describe, for that broader development of character and intellect. I haven't read Hoel, but perhaps a broader paucity of opportunities for multigenerational attachment with adults who can nourish young people intellectually and socially is part of the current context.
Thanks Sophie. Your explanation at the end sounds more than plausible!
Find your own. I was approached by someone to tutor their children and had no expectations to make it a career. My children had left home and I missed the interaction with the younger generation and we easily found a price that suited us both. That was four years ago and the relationship has thrived. At a certain point I took on more students but have since reduced it down to just the initial family; my reasons for doing this were never financial.
I have no teaching experience but am an avid learner and reader and have much to share. This is especially the case now I've seen at close hand the dreariness of modern day education, and how clever children are under stimulated and over-exposed to screens and junk content. It's a cliché but children are like sponges; expose them to toxic material and they will quickly absorb it, expose them to great art and noble ideas and they will soak up that instead.