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How could the teacher of a large class hope to compete with someone who can tailor
their instruction directly to the needs of individual students?
On average, small class instructors know individual students better large groups.
Most frequently, they care more
for those they know so well. They can devote almost every moment
of their time to students because they are not distracted by announcements,
disciplinary problems, bureaucratic requirements and the valid needs
of so many other students. The National Education Commission's study
found that students spent only about 41 per cent of their time in
school on basic academic subjects.
Creative teachers design five-step teaching programs that directly
consider their students' interests and abilities:
I. Individualized Assessment for Private or Semi-Private Instruction.
Classroom teachers can test their many students in only the most rudimentary and standardized manner: they do not have time to discover each student's multiple interests, strengths and weaknesses. What critical academic skills and habits do students lack; and how can they learn those skills? Precisely how well do they speak English? After a month of tutoring and specially-prepared testing, we know students better than most of their teachers. When necessary, we send students with unusual gifts or learning disabilities to educational therapists for advanced testing. In both education and medicine:
Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.
Every person is unique. For that reason, teachers should design curricula that tracks not just students' general skill level, but also their individual interests, abilities and challenges. We may assign English readings which move students from Star Wars stories to great literature, from video games to higher mathematics and computer science. Our programs may help students to speak out in class, to practice Advanced Placement tests, or to design their own web sites. "Teachers," after all, "change the world one child at a time."
Our teachers need not use dull textbooks, worksheets from distant offices, and "canned" lectures intended for general audiences; the world is our classroom. If students travel to China, teachers may teach them Chinese language and history. If clients want religious curricula, our constitution permits it. We may teach biology in the Monterey Aquarium, history at Fort Point or literature at a Shakespeare performance. We teach English with documents and dialogues students must use at their jobs. We find a students' needs and match materials to their needs. Supportive instructors ask lots of useful questions and listen carefully.
Most teachers ask: What must be learned? Few ask: "How can I prepare each one of my students to master that material?" Our instructors generally have Master's Degrees or Teaching Credentials. However, what qualifies them most is not their pedigree, but their wit and gamesmanship; not their brilliant ideas but their ability to nurture others; not the system in their head but their ability to help others create roadmaps of knowledge. The perfect grammarian gives non-native speakers fewer benefits than the resource scavenger who comes up with the perfect lesson plan for less-than-perfect speakers.
Parents and students expect results: they hold us accountable. But every parent and every student wishes to be judged by a different standard. Some people want to enjoy learning; others just want to appease their parents; others insist that they improve grades or test scores; others hope to increase their confidence at particular skills they need for work. We work individually with each client to devise evaluative techniques which meet the client's particular needs: standardized-testing, grades, teacher comments, self-assessment, videotapes, computer programs and other means to calculate the benefits of our programs for you.
Teachers prove their worth by their capacity to assess needs, to devise curriculum, to locate unique materials, to assess students and to evaluate performance. When our educational specialists do all of these tasks well, we believe they uphold the promise of our profession. King Philip of Macedon allegedly wrote to the philosopher Aristotle about his son, Alexander the Great: "I hope that being brought up under your direction and by your care, he may deserve the glory of his father and the empire which I shall leave him."
Alexander the Great