The Teaching Standard of Excellence
Yes, the standardized test tutoring and college admissions field is rather an unregulated field. But it gets worse than that. Many tutors are able to attract clients due to an Ivy League college degree, but whether they can keep them is another matter. Exam-day performance and ultimate college/graduate school admission results are the aftermath of a wide variety of factors, and cannot be predicted ahead of time, but no matter the exact conditions governing the situation, there is always space for an appeal to professional integrity.
Just because you have an Ivy League degree and maybe received a perfect (or close to perfect) score on the standardized tests themselves does not mean that you are a good teacher.
When clients come to me after having been disappointed by one of my fellow Ivy League alums, I don’t even know what to think. You are dealing with children! You are smart and accomplished enough to understand when you are putting 110% effort into helping a child succeed, and when you are not. Just because you have received the honor of an Ivy League degree does not mean that tutoring can be a “side gig” for you.
There are a few of us out there who are actually passionate about teaching and helping students succeed. I am one of them. The standardized testing and admissions consulting industry has gotten such a bad rap that I don’t even want to put those keywords anywhere on my website to describe what I do.
Our mission at Harvard Tutors is to provide professional, personalized, and holistic educational services that students need to reach their highest academic potential. We have actually lived and breathed tests such as the SAT or ACT for the past decade and decoded the ways to “crack” them that we will pass on to our students. We have developed the ample relevant course materials they need to succeed. We will not be sending them to memorize thousands of vocabulary words for no reason.
But before any of that can be achieved, you must get through to the student.
The Gen-Z population is perhaps some of the most difficult consumers ever created in the history of the world to convince, beguile, or influence. They have been bombarded with media messages since they mastered the ability to hold a smartphone between two hands. They are equipped with some of the most advanced forms of BS-detector known to mankind.
You cannot further disappoint this population of young people who are going to be the future of our planet. We need them to help us solve some of the most difficult problems we have yet to face: cyber/nuclear war, environmental degradation, decreasing birth rates, an aging baby boomer population, and continued social disconnection.
In my opinion, becoming a teacher to a young mind is an absolutely privilege that one cannot take lightly. There is nothing more disheartening than seeing a person in a position of authority, such as a teacher, behave in a less than professional manner. Children are malleable and subject to influence, no matter how cynical they may have become due to the damaging effects of modern media technology.
Sure, maybe we have failed to understand the caustic impacts of modern media technologies on our children’s moral development and hide behind the excuse of First Amendment Rights,” but if Gen-Z will be the guinea pig, hopefully we will have been able to better protect our children by the time the next generation rolls around.
There is still hope, one student at a time. Every time a student who has stuck through the painful initial stretch of slow to moderate improvement and reaches the “growth phase,” I begin to believe in the world again. There is no greater reward than the sight of a person who has regained confidence in him-/herself and in the value of hard work, because then, that person is absolutely unstoppable.
