TUTORING CHILDREN THOUGHTS....

[bijou3]

Is IQ genetic or environmental?

With so many parents opting to Tutor their children for entrance into Grammar or selective independent schools one has to wonder if Grammar schools are selecting the boroughs brightest or are they selecting the boroughs best trained?

Do parents worry about the consequences of tutoring their children for highly selective schools and the possible repercussions that may develop over time if a child is unable to keep up?

How can we as parents gauge how good a school is if most of the parents are tutoring their children?

Seeker so as DS has chosen to go to football training (and it is entirely his choice-it's a PITA for me as I have to take him and collect) that counts as free time? He could just as easily have stayed here and stared into space if he chose.

Between me, DP and our respective siblings we have several first degrees, two Mscs and one MBA. And we have jobs to go with the qualifications. You have a hard time convincing us that our lives have been ff-ed up by pushy parenting

I have a Masters degree but I never even had any homework until I was 11. I never learned a single spelling - it wasn't fashionable. I had a good childhood though playing out with my friends all the time and riding on my bike :)

Imo teaching children does increase their intellect, so it is something I choose to do with dd. However time to sit and daydream or invent her own games is time when she is building her imagination and just as important as building her academic capabilities. It is a question of balance. It is at the extremes of doing too little or too much where the problems lie.
Ime not too much teaching has to be done for them to be ahead, however I did this with her from an early age. Little and often is best. I cannot see the point in last minute tutoring just on how to pass the exam. I agree with ClothesOfSand's earlier point in that it depends what sort of tutoring we are talking about.

I don't see how you can just "drill in facts" for either English or maths. Mathematics is not the same as arithmetic. Some grasp of the basic concepts is needed. Children's learning builds on what has been learnt previously, with each topic being covered in more complexity as the child progresses. Much of it is not rote learning.

Evil our grammar sets its own test (quite different to 11+) in the first week of Yr 7 - this is to stream the children (they also take into account their Yr 6 SATS results) and it also highlights those children who were just intensively tutored to pass the 11+.

Why don't they use that test in the admission process then. Such a shame.

Two years ahead at age 10 would be working at an 12 year old level. About 1 in 10 children would be able to do this.

Tutoring for the 11+ is noting tondo with a child's thirst for knowledge, or anything like that. It's just drilling in the techniques to jump through a series of verbal and non verbal hoops. Deadly dull, and intellectually stagnant.

Tutoring for the 11+ is noting tondo with a child's thirst for knowledge, or anything like that. It's just drilling in the techniques to jump through a series of verbal and non verbal hoops. Deadly dull, and intellectually stagnant.

I totally agree. Worse than tutoring is parents attempting to dress it up as enrichment or fostering a child's natural curiosity.

Although less dull than times tables or French verbs, vr and nvr does require thinking and puzzling rather than rote learning.