The life of a private tutor (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#81

Post by deregulateMed » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 10:55 PM UTC

narrator wrote: post #64

dweekly wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! The thing that was missing in the original article was answering the most important question in all of this: Does Tutoring Work? The implication left for a reader of the original article is that tutoring is mostly about exam-prep or that it is under-regulated, ineffectual, and a folly of the rich. But the truth is that the over-regulation of conventional time-based classroom learning is deeply flawed based on ou…

The biggest problem with public instructions is bullying and everything being targeted at minimum competence. Some 12 year old prodigy graduated college and high school at the same time because the pandemic and remote learning letting him zoom ahead at a ridiculous pace.[1] [1] https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/27/us/12-year-old-graduating-hig...

Bullying is bad, but I definitely knew my role wasn't to be strong but rather academic. That line "nerds will be their boss" was my incentive. (Although I don't personally want to be a manager)

Sure it would be great to get rid of bullying, but I wonder if it's inherent in humans.

I'd focus on things we can control like that minimum competence problem you described.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#82

Post by ketzo » Fri, Jul 09, 2021, 11:25 PM UTC

naveen99 wrote: post #80

sandworm101 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I attended an "elite" boys school back in the 1990s. It was a doctor and lawyer factory. Everyone went to university and most got advanced degrees. But I talked to a teacher there recently. The students are now so wealthy that they are hard to motivate. Doctors have to touch sick people. Lawyers have to go work in an office. The students at my old school today don't dream of success. They all pass, they all do well,…

Doctors and lawyers aren’t elite though. They are solidly middle class.

In SF/NYC/LA, maybe. In any city with less than a million people, they are much more frequently upper-middle to upper class.

Additionally, despite often being mentioned in the same breath/status, doctors and lawyers follow very different distributions of compensation. Attorney pay is shockingly bimodal: the ambulance chaser firm advertising on the back of the city bus is paying first-year associates <60k, if that, then there’s a huge gap, and then more prestigious law firms can offer 200k+, even in cities like Nashville, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, etc.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#83

Post by romwell » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 1:12 AM UTC

pyuser583 wrote: post #58

romwell wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>instead of aspiring to get a PhD to earn a mediocre salary(in comparison) at FANNG As a PhD at FAANG[1], I mourn that the default aspiration for getting a PhD isn't staying in academia and advancing science. And if you call FAANG salaries mediocre, I don't even know what you'd call academia salaries :( ------- [1] Formerly. Left for greener and less soul-draining pastures.

Isn’t there already overproduction of PhDs?

Define "overproduction".

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#84

Post by watwut » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 2:12 PM UTC

queuebert wrote: post #76

pyuser583 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t there already overproduction of PhDs?

Given that we still don't have a Mars base, haven't solved the climate problem, and aren't living sustainably on the planet, I would say no.

The science is pyramid currently - existing PhD cant find post docs in science.

And even if they did, the mars is not currently goal of those who provide funding. Nor should it be, honestly.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#85

Post by watwut » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 2:14 PM UTC

inglor_cz wrote: post #31

This seems to be another element of the "overproduction of elites" theory by Peter Turchin that was discussed here a few days ago. In a world where the upper middle and upper class has grown to all time high numbers, there is ever more adepts for prestigious titles and prestigious jobs. But the Oxfords and Harvards of the world do not multiply themselves, and they have no incentive to . If the product that they sell…

The univeraities under top provide very food education. The people studying there are fully qualified to the same powerful jobs.

You dont need Harward/Yale to tripple class, you need to stop looking at Harward/Yale exclusively when picking those career boosting clerkships.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#86

Post by watwut » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 2:20 PM UTC

lbriner wrote: post #17

trentnix wrote: post #5

I only got two paragraphs in before my THIS IS FICTION alarm bells were too loud to ignore.

Why is it fiction? People who are rich enough to pay an entire yacht crew are not going to worry about $50K a year for a tutor to try and make their lazy waste-of-space child at least have half a chance of creating their own success when they are older.

If the kid is lazy waste of space and the tutor can make the difference, paying one just sounds like good parenting.

Also, a lot of these kids are smart and hardworking and motivated. The money are an additional advantage and parents having resources to ensure they stay motivated and active is advantage too.

But, the assumption that they are all dumb or lazy is wrong.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#87

Post by trentnix » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

lbriner wrote: post #17

trentnix wrote: post #5

I only got two paragraphs in before my THIS IS FICTION alarm bells were too loud to ignore.

Why is it fiction? People who are rich enough to pay an entire yacht crew are not going to worry about $50K a year for a tutor to try and make their lazy waste-of-space child at least have half a chance of creating their own success when they are older.

Of course rich people pay for tutors. Of course some rich people have stupid expectations. But the whole setup reads like it's the start of a Chuck Palahniuk novel and that makes me certain the author is full of s**.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#88

Post by queuebert » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 6:02 PM UTC

pyuser583 wrote: post #78

queuebert wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that we still don't have a Mars base, haven't solved the climate problem, and aren't living sustainably on the planet, I would say no.

Is that because of a shortage of PhDs? Isn’t there a significant surplus of aeronautical engineers? I personally know several aeronautical engineers (with doctorates) struggling to find work in their industry. I know two folks with BAs in Environmental Science working as Product Managers (unrelated to environment sustainability). Having goals we have yet to achieve doesn’t show a lack of specialists. If anything the…

Those are all factors. As a species, we need more scientific output and less sales and marketing.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#89

Post by jxramos » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 6:17 PM UTC

dweekly wrote: post #38

dataphyte wrote: post #25

Bloom's 2-Sigma Problem: students getting one-on-one instruction perform 2 standard deviations better than those learning from ordinary instruction methods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem

Yes! The thing that was missing in the original article was answering the most important question in all of this: Does Tutoring Work? The implication left for a reader of the original article is that tutoring is mostly about exam-prep or that it is under-regulated, ineffectual, and a folly of the rich. But the truth is that the over-regulation of conventional time-based classroom learning is deeply flawed based on ou…

that's in interesting angle with the grad school advisor reality. Very true, never thought about how an "advisor" would function throughout the entirety of one's education.

Re: The life of a private tutor (2020)

#90

Post by rdtwo » Sat, Jul 10, 2021, 8:06 PM UTC

at_a_remove wrote: post #23

golergka wrote: post #6

One of the most important competitive advantages in modern world is motivation to do things on your own. And all this tutoring that kids are forced to be doing by adults is killing it.

I was a private tutor for a long time. My market segment often leaned toward the "rather wealthy," although not anything like this. However, the struggle to motivate is very real. Each child or teen (or even young adult) comes with their own package of bad coping skills, strengths and deficits, motivations (or lack thereof), and so on. Each one has a history . In any case, to my actual point -- discovering those moti…

Do you have any tips for hiring someone like yourself for tutoring. Honestly I feel like I’d be doing my kid a huge disservice by not hiring a tutor but hiring a good one is probably key.