Educational Issues

As everyone does, we are all forced to look in the mirror and count our blessings. I know I have an abundance of them and often wonder what my world would be like had I been born into a different family or if my parents had made different choices. This is a time travel pondering that could extend past infinity, so usually a nice glass of wine puts to bed any wondering. Recently I began tutoring in Compton. If you ever wanted to appreciate the things you have go there. But if you would also like to be amazed at the difference a parent can make, go there.

One family in particular is entirely focused on helping their child. They do the best they can to keep her busy but also put in the effort when it comes to her education. You can even see it spill over into other areas as there is an aunt who is also working to expand her knowledge and better her circumstances. Press that back to back with the three families I have called repeatedly and will not set up a single tutoring appointment. This service is free to them in the hopes of helping the children succeed in school and the parents are blocking any growth from happening by simple apathy.

Couple that with what I am sure is a multi-million dollar business tutoring students, paid for by LA Unified and I am sick to my stomach. There is no accountability in this position. The program does give one on one attention but simply regurgitates the information already given in the classroom with the same worksheets. The entire training program consisted of teaching the tutors how to fill out the paperwork so the business can be properly reimbursed by the big pockets of the school district. When I have spoken to them about the families who do not get back to me, there is no care, no concern. There is no outreach to the school to see if there is another way to make the tutoring happen. Instead it is just move on. It makes me suspicious about the billing practices, but I have yet to investigate further.

How is it that an entire company can claim to help the process, be the company of choice by the district, yet not really work at developing any kind of improvement on the teaching practices. We all see commercials everyday for other learning centers. Places that focus on new techniques to help students really learn. But for the "free" kids who are being paid for by taxpayer money, the school system does not even attempt to make a change. How is throwing the same information out there in the same way supposed to garner any different results. I don't blame the teachers. I don't entirely blame the parents who don't understand how important this is. But I do blame the company that has a choice in how the information is presented. A company making a profit off taxpayers under the guise of helping students when the company obviously does not care a single bit what the outcome is.