Tutors International, global provider of full-time private tutoring, announced that there is an increasing trend for homeschool cooperatives, but that in practice they rarely succeed.
Tutors International, who are the leading provider of full-time private tutors to UHNW families around the world, today warned parents that although homeschool cooperatives seem like a good idea, they rarely work out when put into practice.
Mr Caller, who founded the tutoring organisation in 1999, said, “people have an often misguided notion that children suffer on a social level if they’re privately tutored at home, so when they hear that the Jones’s next door are also considering taking their kids out of school they think that sharing a private tutor and schooling all the kids together is a great solution. However, it rarely works out as they hoped for.”
Mr Caller explained that several things affect the quality of a cooperative homeschool, which parents usually fail to predict in advance:
“As soon as you enter into a partnership with another set of parents, you’re subject to compromise, negotiation, joint decisions on what is taught, how it is taught, when it is taught.
“We’ve found that one parent is usually very vocal about their preferences, and it invariably leaves another parent resentful of the way the ‘school’ is being steered.
“In essence, all the benefits of employing a private tutor – the flexibility; your say in the teaching methods; the 1:1 attention; the ability to travel when you want to and take your tutor with you; the relevance of all activities, outings and lessons to the child, their environment, their academic level; the carefully chosen tutor’s fit to a family’s personality, ethos and hobbies – are all diminished when you share a tutor with another family.”
Mr Caller mentions a few homeschool cooperatives that have succeeded, but stresses that they have more formal structures in place, ensuring everyone has a voice, and procedures for handling disputes. The families have gone into the venture with very open eyes. He recommends that for families that can afford a private tutor, “don’t be tempted to homeschool with another family on a full-time basis. Of course, group lessons can sometimes be great fun but keep them informal and irregular, and if your aim is to improve your tutored child’s social life, do that with sports and hobbies that won’t affect the quality of his/her homeschool education.”
About Tutors International
Tutors International is a worldwide organization providing experienced full-time private tutors to work with children of all ages and nationalities, in a wide variety of situations, including international relocation, after-school support, full-time home tuition, support for AD/HD and dyslexia, home schooling for frequent travellers, and college prep and coaching.
Tutors International was founded by Adam Caller who has tutored students of all ages. He has received specialist training in dyslexia and AD/HD and is very sensitive to children's educational difficulties. He has now turned this expertise to recruiting, training and placing other tutors with HNW and UHNW families around the world. Adam is a member of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA).
