What tutors live on. Children have long been taught not by school, but by tutors Text of the scientific work on the topic "Tutoring as a problem of pedagogical science and practice"
The interview of Vladimir SOBKIN, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education to the Uchitelskaya Gazeta proves that the school has finally ceased to be the place where students receive the knowledge they need for their future life and learning. A group of scientists led by the academician conducted fundamental sociological surveys. And here are the conclusions:
“To a large extent, preparation for a university, victories in olympiads, a high score in the final state exam and international tests are provided not by the school itself, but by people“ from the outside. ”The school simply ascribes their merits to itself.
In addition, you need to understand the cost of the issue. For example, if we take the prices for the services of a tutor in Moscow at about 1,500 rubles per hour (although in fact it can be 3,000, 5,000 or more rubles), if we remember that one hour a week is not limited, and many schoolchildren study with tutors in two, three or more subjects, the result is an astronomical amount. And this is all on top of what the state officially spends on education.
And yet the state recognizes this problem. Let me remind you that recently the following figures were announced in the Public Chamber: 92 percent of parents believe that the Unified State Exam requires special training, 41.7 percent answered that additional assignments at school are required in preparation for the Unified State Exam, and 52.9 percent turn to the services of tutors and they pay quite a lot of money for them.
And here are some more interesting facts. Poorly performing schoolchildren study with tutors noticeably less often than well-performing students. Paradox? It would seem that if a student is already learning on "4" and "5", why does he need additional lessons, they are much more needed by those who interrupt from "2" to "3"! But no, the opposite is true.
Previously, we shyly hid this fact, it was considered indecent to say that the school still prepares for the university, and this is one of the main tasks set for it by the parents. However, statistics are relentless - pragmatics comes to the fore, it can be stated: yes, the university is still too important for us, and the rate of progress should be taken as the main one in assessing success. These are exactly the requirements of the family today as the main customer of educational services. And therefore, if the school does not cope with this task, a powerful resource of tutors is connected ...
tutors are very critical about the closed nature of the system of financial incentives for teachers at school. They themselves understand everything - one hour costs so much, during this time I guarantee such and such a result. But in an educational organization it is far from always clear who pays whom and for what.
There is also a place for real injustice, since schools very often appropriate other people's achievements. Children won at some All-Russian Olympiad or at a competition - the school victoriously reports on how well their work with different categories of children is. And few people are interested in remembering that tutors worked with them for extra money from the pocket of their parents. It is better to declare that this is the merit of her school teachers, and usually no one will publicly say a kind word about the "private traders" ...
Tutors more often than ordinary teachers strive to give students solid knowledge, to demonstrate to them high standards of mastery of the subject. This, by the way, is quite logical: I set the bar high and show that I myself correspond to this plan. But here's the detail: tutors admit that much more often than ordinary teachers, they strive to give students the opportunity to express their point of view, to teach them something new, to form their diligence and conscientiousness. They try to identify the real problems and interests of students, but they themselves are more eager to win the respect and sympathy of students.
A real tutor always understands that he will not be able to qualitatively prepare a student if only the material aspect is put in the first place. Pedagogical courage connected with communication during the lesson is also very important to him. Hence the joint analysis of tasks, discussion of solutions, demonstration of one's own intellectual abilities, feedback in the form of an opportunity to express one's opinion, and so on.
In a word, it is deeply mistaken to accuse tutors that they are just chasing big money. In fact, self-realization is very important for them, albeit in a slightly different sense than the one that is customary to talk about when addressing a mass teacher of a Moscow school.
The motives for creative activity among tutors also lie in the desire to diversify the content of professional activity and not to work according to a template, in the desire for personal growth, in the desire to move to a new stage of professional development and receive financial incentives for this.
According to the HSE Institute of Education, the shadow market for tutoring services in Russia is almost 30 billion rubles.
For the query "Tutors in Russia", the Yandex search engine gives out 57 million results.
The parents of my students, and the students themselves, always ask what kind of education I have, whether I have great teaching experience, whether I worked at school or somewhere else. I'll tell you my story about why tutoring for me is a prestigious profession, not a part-time job, not kalym, and certainly not a hobby.
Tutor and Law
From the point of view of the law, tutoring is a business activity. If you want to do this business on a large scale and legally, then you need to either join the staff of an officially registered tutoring center, preferably licensed to carry out educational activities, or register yourself. More than 70 percent of school teachers work part-time as tutors, forming the shadow education market in Russia - I do not support such activity, if only because the teacher gets a huge client base for nothing, and for us - spin around, advertise, go to the Federal Tax Service.
Often, special skills are needed to achieve a goal, and a tutor will help to train them. (Still from the film "The Color of Money", 1986)
I will immediately outline my position: a tutor is not a teacher who earns money from the underground. Work at school is neither the basis nor a preparatory stage for the work of a tutor. On one of the educational portals, I had the opportunity to express my skepticism towards modern school teachers. In response, a lot of comments flooded that I needed to go to work at school, sniff gunpowder, sip dashing and perform some other manipulations with my career. Not very clear advice, since I position my tutoring activity as entrepreneurial, even having completed higher education at the Moscow State Pedagogical University in the specialty “Organization of work with youth”.
“We must face the truth: some of the tutors are people who, for various reasons, do not want to work with children at school,” wrote the journalist of Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
I personally don’t want it, this is true, but the reason is that there is one fundamental difference between a tutor and a school teacher, which is by no means a philosophical one: this is the legal basis of the work.
We open 273-ФЗ. The one about education. : a pedagogical worker is an individual who is in labor, service relations with an organization that carries out educational activities, and performs the duties of training, educating students and (or) organizing educational activities. Scrolling further and holding a glance at and: there it is voluminously painted in Russian over white, on the basis of what norms the pedagogical worker acts, what he has the right to do, what he is obliged to do.
Do these rules apply to the tutor? No. The tutor is not in any labor relationship with anyone. The only exceptions are cases when the teacher, in addition to private practice, works in any center for preparing for exams, which I wrote about above. The legal basis for the work of a tutor, his Bible - the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Chapter 39 "Reimbursable provision of services." The laws and regulations governing the activities of a tutor include FZ 129 and the norms of the Tax Code, for example, on the patent taxation system.
The relations formed on the basis of FZ-273 are public, and those that have the Civil Code as a legal basis are private. They cannot be placed in one row.
The relationship between teacher and class, class and school, school and teacher is born of the power of the state; the relationship between the tutor and the student is due to the mutual expression of the will of the parties.
You have the right to find another specialist, and I have the right to refuse to work with your child. And the termination of our relationship can not be argued in any way - we are not suitable for each other, that's all. Unilateral refusal to execute the contract for the provision of services for compensation - Civil Code of the Russian Federation Art. 782.
Another interesting point is related to the cost of tutoring services. I will try to cover the issue of pricing without reducing the story to writing an estimate.
To begin with, I will quote the sensational statement of our prime minister: “I am often asked about teachers and lecturers. This is a vocation, and if you want to earn money, there are many great places where you can do it faster and better. The same business. " The phrase was criticized a lot, but the idea is absolutely correct.
All conditions are created for the realization of the vocation of the teacher. The teacher is in the economic field of the school. Everything is supplied centrally for state purchases: boards, tables, portraits of scientists. On which from the list of equipment for equipping the educational process does the teacher spend his personal money? Tell us if there are such items of expenditure.
The tutor has his own workspace. Leading in a room where borscht is puffing in a saucepan, there are combs on the table and a cat's tray in a corner smells the space - an absolute disrespect for the client. Would you be surprised if this was what the office of a lawyer or psychologist looked like? Of course, you would be surprised, because this is unacceptable in the business of organizing a business.
The same material from Rossiyskaya Gazeta contains a frank response from a client mother:
- “I take 800 rubles per lesson. It doesn't matter whether it is at home or at your place, ”a tutor, who was found by an ad on the Internet, announced to me. “At home” is a kitchen in a rented two-room apartment, which has not been renovated for the last forty years. There is only a table and two old stools in the kitchen. The children asked: "Is it possible to study in the room?" To which the tutor replied: “Everything is littered with things. But if I really need to, I will clean up. "
Which was what had to be proved: very few people want to study with a pimply graduate student in an untidy room or with a strange old woman with a bad breath, albeit with the baggage of all Soviet pedagogy.
A tutor is a person from a business. And the requirements for him are the same as for any other entrepreneur - to do it honestly and efficiently.
Therefore, you need to rent in an office center or overhaul your home. I have both. Do you know how much a board or flipchart costs? The cheapest are three to five thousand. And also tables, chairs, organizers for papers, a printer, textbooks every year, lamps, markers, sponges, bottled water for clients, a kettle, tea, sweets and souvenirs for children, room decor and ... the list is endless.
Think of the three metrics in Euler circles as "quality, free, fast." Qualitatively and free of charge does not exist, even under socialism. If you work for free, all your other indicators - image, equipment, psychological comfort, self-esteem - will tend to zero. “Fast” is a separate topic altogether: teaching what is being studied for five years is a special task in a few months.
Also, the cost of services includes the scale of work - individually or in mini-groups. The subject teacher knows his subject perfectly, and the tutor knows both the subject and how well the client knows its subject. The personality of the student in the business of the tutor does not merge into a huge collective personality called the "class". Naturally, individual work is more expensive. A compartment in a train for one is also expensive, but such a price does not raise questions.
Therefore, there can be no talk of organizing an almshouse and free teaching - the only exceptions are initial consultations. The price is formed on the basis of demand, the contract for the provision of services is concluded voluntarily - I remind you of the legal basis. If this model of relations between citizens is unacceptable for you, and cats scratching their hearts from the fact that someone earns, then join the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, build communism.
Is the tutor a service staff?
No, it's not. The topic is closed, let's have the next question.
But seriously, in the relationship between the tutor and the client there is a system of rights and obligations, into which the term "service" is not embedded in any way. For service personnel are workers who are NOT directly involved in the provision of services and the management of these processes. In the matrix "parent (customer) - student (beneficiary) - tutor (performer)", the professional subject is the latter, and if one of your clients considers you to be a service personnel, part with him immediately.
If we compare the activities of a tutor with any other, then the activity of a fitness trainer is most suitable: I worked as a trainer in a fitness club, so I know the specifics. There are huge venous pitching - these are trainers for men; there are coaches for group programs - lively, loud-voiced women; there are stretching and yoga coaches - phlegmatic, peaceful. A priori, all of the listed options cannot be suitable for you at once: you will always choose based on your goals.
It's the same with a tutor: it is not a more expensive type of school teacher with universal competence, it is a specialist who focuses on the development of one or more related skills.
The tutor may have personal requirements for his students: I only work with “adult” children, no less than 9th grade. If I understand that the client is “not mine,” and I don’t suit him in terms of format, we part. Such cases are 2-3%.
In communication between a tutor and a student, there is a special ethics, somewhere softer, and somewhere more severe, when compared with the school.
One of my clients recommended me by another tutor, an older woman. On the phone question about how to introduce me to a future student, I answered only my name. “No, well, how can it be, it is necessary by the patronymic,” objected a colleague. And I fundamentally disagree with this position: I always communicate with you, the student chooses the type of address to me. They prefer 30-40 percent to "you", 10 percent use the exceptionally sonorous "Daria Dmitrievna", the rest use "you". After all, the point is that the student can express his thoughts as freely as possible in class and demonstrate the actual level of knowledge. Respect does not lie in formalized communication, but in the recognition of competence and authority.
I'll tell you a story from my life: in the summer of 2016, I got a job at one center for exam preparation. Very young specialists (even sophomores) are hired there, so with my thick portfolio, pedagogical education and a second almost complete legal education (all together read as "I with my inflated sense of self-importance") sat at the interview "like e boss."
The selection of teachers was in four stages. At the first one, I had to chat about a free topic that had nothing to do with the subject of instruction, and I passed this stage without any problems. But the second stage was to imitate the lesson. Only instead of the students there were employees of the center: they tried to act out all sorts of non-standard situations, apparently checking the stress resistance of the candidates.
Anticipating the further story, I will say that I allow my students enough freedom: they can drink tea, answer important calls, choose the way of memorizing information by writing or by ear, joking jokes. In short, I am not a tyrant. But the situation that was played out by the staff of the center was downright grotesque. At first, the two girls looked diligently at the phone, then asked inappropriate questions about the subject, and then began to demonstratively communicate with each other in a voice.
And then one of them asks another question: "Well, where are we going to the cinema today - to the horrors or to the drama?"
Honestly, for me this is a non-standard situation: I just usually work with adequate people who listen carefully enough to what I say, because, I believe, they value information. And they don't overplay. I decided to put a stop to further disgrace with the phrase: "I'm going to arrange a drama or horror for you now." Naturally, they didn’t take me to work, they said that the image was too aggressive.
But the moral of the story is different: behavior that interferes with the occupation will simply be suppressed. Up to the fundamental refusal to work with the client - this also happened. It is important to understand that you are paying a tutor as a professional who has full control over your educational process in his subject. A tutor is not a servant, but your mentor, who has the right to refuse an inconvenient client. I try to build that model of relationship in which the delicate balance between a friendly note and mentoring, dialogue and leadership, freedom and discipline will be observed.
The prestige of tutoring
Is it prestigious to be a tutor? Yes, unless you are a teacher who secretly pulls his students out to paid individual. If you fit this description, then go back to the beginning of the article, there is a lot of useful information.
A tutor is an entrepreneur, and it (entrepreneurship) is in our honor according to the results of surveys. In addition, this profession has tremendous creative potential in terms of choosing or creating teaching methods.
I have legal experience in the past, work in the fitness industry as a certified trainer for Reebok and project employment in organizing conferences, competitions, the same "Seliger". I graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical University with a degree in organization of work with youth, and this year I am also graduating from the Moscow State Law Academy.
What can I teach? All the same things that are taught in school. And I can also provide a course on preparation for entering universities under law enforcement agencies - both humanitarian subjects and physical training. And I can also tell you how you really amaze the expert commission at the DVI in the legal department. And I can also give advice on how to create your own project at school age and get a state grant for it.
Why can I? Because I am not a subject teacher, but a trainer, lawyer, event manager, entrepreneur and hereditary witch (just kidding).
And I do it at a time convenient for the client, in a comfortable and beautifully decorated room, with tea / coffee, the ability to adjust the light, temperature, the scale of the educational material for the visually impaired, with repetition for the slow writer, and so on. A person can come with a specific problem, a strong desire to achieve something and an intuitive knowledge that for this you need to enter a good university, and you help him set a goal, divide it into stages and gradually approach its achievement - is it not noble ?
There is no time in school to teach everyone according to special programs, and there is no such goal: that's what general education is for, in order to be universal and uniform.
Everyone has different potential, different ways of perceiving information and, most importantly, different motivation. Every year there are children who were brought to classes by their parents or some inexplicable yoke of the need for preparation: “I have to pass this particular subject, but I don’t know for what purpose”. There are 40 percent of such children.
Many tutors promise to "arouse interest in the subject", "to instill a desire to learn" - sorry, but this is just populism to attract clientele, we will not idealize.
It is impossible to control the sympathies of a child, and therefore it is impossible to force a person to love an object if initially he does not have an interest and inclination towards it. But it is possible, on the basis of utilitarian reasoning, leaning on pragmatism, to convey that if you remember this list of information, you can do the task under the number so and so and so. And the person remembers. And the person correctly performs the task under number such and such and such. After all, a young man from the first grade has hammered into his head the need to hand over something and go somewhere.
People are ready to pay for the quality and customization of the service, from which we can draw a conclusion about the financial prestige of the tutoring profession.
The main idea of my work: a tutor is an entrepreneur. The quintessence of business ethics is the word “quality”, and therefore I try to make it the main symbol of my work. I hope this article will be able to change the attitude towards truly professional tutors and understand their contribution to modern education.
We wanted the best, but it turned out as always. These words describe in the best possible way what is happening in Russian education today. Serious problems exist literally at every stage: in kindergartens, general education, correctional and music schools, institutes, universities and academies. At the same time, everyone is dissatisfied with the reform of the educational sphere: children and their parents, school teachers, university teachers with academicians and employers of young specialists. To understand this problem, "Reedus" begins a series of articles devoted to the educational sphere. Today we will talk about schools.
Learn, learn and learn
Modern students follow this Leninist behest much more than their parents did during their school years. The educational load on children today is greater than ever. At the beginning of May, the whole country thundered the story of asking too much at home. A criminal case was opened against her, but later the prosecutor's office of the Chelyabinsk region declared the decision illegal and canceled the decision.
So far, this is the only such media scandal, but today's schoolchildren are forced to gnaw the granite of science like the damned. “School, tutors, homework, sleep. So - seven days a week. There is no time left for anything else, ”says one of the graduates. Perhaps his words should be taken critically: most adolescents do not have a great love of learning, but this point of view is shared by many teachers. “Huge load. It needs to be drastically reduced. Children are essentially busy 7 days a week, given that many schools practice 6 days a week. In this case, they study from Monday to Saturday, and Sunday is almost completely occupied with preparing for Monday. No, there are, of course, those who both study and manage to do sports, but there are an absolute minority of those, ”says Natalya Koneva, who has worked as a school English teacher for five years.
According to the standards, students from grades 7 to 11 are not allowed to put more than 7 lessons a day. With a five-day education system in grades 10-11, the number of teaching hours is limited to 34 per week, with a six-day system - 37. This is already a lot, taking into account the homework, but in fact these requirements are often not met: sometimes there are 8 lessons a day, and 41 lessons per week.
Screenshot of an electronic diary from one of the educational forums, where an eleventh grader proves his workload is above normal
Most likely, no one would have talked about the increased workload on schoolchildren, if there was a sense of this. However, the results of the "educational diet with a high content of granite of science" are not encouraging in any way. Two years ago, after passing the exam in the Russian language, a serious scandal erupted: many schoolchildren were unable to overcome the minimum passing score.
“The results of the unified state exam in the Russian language this year are monstrous. The Ministry of Education was even forced to lower the bar of the result from 36 to 24 points, in fact, legitimizing the fact that a two is a passing grade. Otherwise, a third of the country's graduates would not have received their certificates. At the same time, as we know how, it was served victoriously - they say, they learned so well to control that no one cheats anymore. But you have to see the result behind this, ”said Vladimir Tolstoy, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, in June 2014.
The result is disastrous. Most likely, there will be no failure in the USE results this year, also due to the “legalized two marks”. However, schools do not fulfill their main task: they teach how to effectively place "jackdaws", but do not give knowledge. To give them to their children, parents are forced to spend seriously on all kinds of tutors - and if a decade and a half ago this item of expenditure fell on graduation classes, today many send their offspring for paid knowledge already starting from 6-7 grades.
"With this education reform, I will always have a job."
Natalia Koneva, English tutor, is sure of this. Tired of working at school, meaningless, in her own words, and merciless, she went into private business. “If the USE in English is made compulsory by 18-19, then there will be work - from morning to night. Our entire system is built in such a way that parents from the fifth grade must give their children to tutors, the older - the more tutors. Already at the age of 12, children must decide what they will do for the rest of their lives, ”she adds.
The increased load falls not only on schoolchildren, but also on teachers. “To get a good salary, you have to live at school from morning to night. If a student does not go to school due to the fact that he lives in a dysfunctional family, or does not study well, then this is the teacher's problem, ”says Natalya Koneva. But the point is not only in the direct teaching and educational load. Education reform has added "paperwork" to teachers.
“I was told - I, incidentally, did not know - that out of 100% of reports written by teachers and school workers, only 30% are ordered by the Ministry of Education, and 70% are generally outside organizations. This, of course, is a disgrace. It is necessary to prepare a real legislative limitation to these reports. The teacher must do his own thing, and if he writes reports, then, accordingly, this time is stolen from our children, "- Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
It should be noted that in that part of the work with documents, which is done at the behest of the Ministry of Education, not everything is smooth. “Our work is constantly duplicated,” says Natalya Koneva. "A paper journal is an electronic journal, a paper diary is an electronic diary, and so on."
“When I came to school, we had just introduced an electronic magazine, the first year. Nobody knew what to do with him. Arranged courses. Several times a computer science teacher came and told me how to fill it out. And then it turns out that the log can "crash", the databases - completely disappear, if you suddenly forgot to make a "backup". Grades disappear, here some extra field comes out, because the programmers modify the magazine in the course of your work. Give you the alpha version and enjoy. Only we all got used to it, the next year they took us and ordered from above that everyone will now fill out this e-zine: another site, another program, another interface, other features. They used it for two years. Then - a new version ... And you also need to keep a portfolio of children. And when to do the lessons themselves? Prepare for them? When to take care of children? ”- asks rhetorical questions Sergei, a former teacher of geography and French.
“Today it is customary to scold teachers for everything: they teach poorly, not like they used to. But today's teachers are the same people who worked in schools twenty years ago, he continues. "The problems are not in the teachers, the problems are in the system itself, in the approach to school education."
“There are a lot of complaints,” says Natalya Koneva. - For example, to textbooks. In my subject, they are simply unacceptable. The first three years of study - the second, third, fourth grades - children learn a lot: absolutely unnecessary vocabulary, unnecessary grammar. Unnecessary because it is not practiced. Some kind of utopian textbook: it can be taught only if there is one hundred percent attendance, and in the classroom there are only geniuses who grasp everything on the fly. Failure begins in the fifth grade: they begin to re-learn the alphabet. Such relaxation lasts two years: grades 5-6. And then the "bulk" begins again, the increase in the volume of material. By the 11th grade, they should know a lot, but in fact they know little. No matter how hard you try, it won't work. There are wonderful textbooks, but you cannot use them, because you can only use those that have the stamp of the Ministry of Education. This is a very limited number of textbooks. "
Similar claims are made against textbooks in a variety of subjects. For example, at the All-Russian Congress of History Teachers, Chairman of the Association of History and Social Science Teachers, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Chubaryan noted “problems with social studies”: “I recently looked out for textbooks on social studies. They are very abstract and difficult even for a history department student, let alone a school student. "
“The leapfrog with textbooks and the difficulties associated with it in the form of differences in programs have been going on since about 2003. Now one thing, now another. The main thing is stability, but it is not in schools, we constantly have something new, - says Sergey. “The requirements for the exam change every year, and not only the requirements for the exam change, but also for its content.”
This happened in the current year 2016: the exam in mathematics was divided into two levels - basic and profile. The results of the basic exam were announced today, the profile one - will become public in a week. There are no official results yet. So far, the regions are only proud of the number of students who have completed a hundred Unified State Exam in Russian and Mathematics. Probably, this year the case will do without major scandals, as in 2014.
The main task of the educational department is to provide the maximum number of schoolchildren with certificates of secondary education, and representatives of the Ministry of Education carefully monitor this, first of all. The consequences of this approach and education reform are already visible today: the first representatives of the USE generation graduated from universities and went to work.
“Two new teachers came to my school. They entered pedagogical universities with an average grade of the certificate of "3". How will they teach history to children? As a head teacher, I see that for now they are an empty place, ”one of the head teachers said at the All-Russian Congress of History Teachers. Dmitry Livanov, meanwhile, is focused on a single history textbook (which in fact turned out to be three) and a massive one. "This cockroach needs to be launched into mass production, since this technological novelty will not only be interesting, but also useful for children and adolescents," he said in February. Education has not yet reached the point of fighting cockroaches in the heads of individual officials.
Our next materials will focus on the consequences of school unification and inclusive education, kindergartens and music schools, the problems of Russian universities and fundamental science, corruption in the educational sphere, the questionable dissertation of Isaac Kalina and other interesting things from the world of science.
The Village continues to figure out how the personal budgets of people of different professions are arranged. In the new issue - a tutor. Teachers are looking for clients on websites or social networks, or they contact themselves after hearing positive reviews on word of mouth. The flexible schedule allows you to combine tutoring with other work, although in any case the income will be unstable: in the summer there are significantly fewer students than in the midst of preparing for exams. On average, a private lesson in mathematics, physics or English costs from 900 to 2 thousand rubles. At the same time, not the entire amount is sent to the tutor's wallet: specialized sites with a client base often take a commission, part of the money has to be spent on moving between students. A graduate of an economic university from St. Petersburg, who worked as a tutor for three years, spoke about the search for students, sleepless nights and competition with teachers.
Profession
Tutor
Income
45,000 rubles
+15,000 rubles
help from relatives
Spending
15,000 rubles
rent an apartment
9,000 rubles
5,000 rubles
personal care
8 500 rubles
entertainment and hobbies
9,000 rubles
travel expenses
2 500 rubles
commission for new students
3,000 rubles
household stuff
8,000 rubles
savings for the summer
How to become a tutor
This year I studied economics at one of the top universities in the country. Prior to that, she graduated from a serious mathematical school in her hometown, participated in Olympiads, devoted a lot of time and effort to mathematics. For the last three years I have been working as a tutor, combining teaching with study.
I came to St. Petersburg to study, and in my first year the money issue arose sharply. At first I worked in the service sector, but the money I earned there was barely enough for food and the most modest entertainment a couple of times a month. In addition to wanting to lead a more relaxed lifestyle, money was needed to rent an apartment. The hostel of my university is located outside the city: the road to the faculty took on average 2 hours and 15 minutes. Parents helped a little, but the money they sent was only enough for the cheapest apartment in Devyatkin.
The work took up a lot of time, and problems with studies began. I began to look for a new place: I wanted something more intellectual than the job of a salesperson. Most of the vacancies were dropped due to a schedule that could not be combined with studies, as well as due to the lack of completed higher education. Then a friend advised me to try teaching. I didn’t really believe that it would be possible to earn money constantly. To get at least some experience, I conducted several classes with my nephew, and then registered on specialized sites. Now I have accounts on five or six such sites, but in fact there are only two workers. The first is the most promoted, they take a commission equal to the cost of the first lesson. The second has the largest base of teachers and students, the commission there is twice as large. Many familiar tutors do not like him, but, in my opinion, it is better to overpay for a student and be able to choose with whom to study, than to grab any order.
Features of work
Usually I find a request from a client that suits me on the site and respond to it. If the administrator thinks that I am suitable for the order, then he sends me the contacts of the parent (sometimes the child himself), and we agree on the first lesson. After the first lesson, I report to the site on the results and pay a commission. At this stage, the site forgets about me. There are times when a client chooses a tutor himself, which, of course, is nice. I rarely find students through acquaintances, perhaps because there are no families with schoolchildren in my environment. The students themselves rarely recommend tutors to each other, even if they are happy with everything.
The vast majority of children want to start classes between 4 pm and 7 pm: by this time they have time to come home from school and have a little rest. Thus, in one evening I manage to cram two one and a half hour classes, if the students live close to each other. Some children can only study in the evening, more often they have other activities, such as art school. Usually these children have excellent time management: thanks to them, you can fit not two, but three classes a day.
Some tutors take children at home - you can do more, not waste time and money on the road. For some time I practiced this format, but then I gave it up. Too many strangers in my own apartment bothered me.
When I was in university, the schedule was pretty busy. Every April and May - the time of preparation for exams - I generally worked seven days a week, greed spoke in me. Although one interesting feature allowed me to find time for myself and rest a little: children are still quitters and love to cancel classes.
Several years ago it seemed to me that tutors were not needed at all. How surprised I was to learn how much this specialty is in demand! Most often, tutors are hired to prepare for exams or to help in improving grades, less often to prepare for the Olympiads.
It is much more pleasant to prepare for exams, but the pull-up is more difficult. Usually, everything is so bad for students that six months is the minimum that needs to be spent on restoring knowledge and developing some kind of self-confidence. I have several examples of children with whom I had to deal with for a year and a half before pulling them into a four. Last year I began to practice free trial classes, but not for marketing purposes, but in order to be able to weed out inadequate clients or too difficult children. The percentage of completely hopeless people has decreased, but they still remain.
It is difficult for a child to achieve a result and draw out grades, it depends on the mood of the school teacher. Usually, children are simply branded as "C" or "L" - and grades based on this. And the responsibility, although not one hundred percent, should be borne by me. But it is almost impossible to change the teacher's opinion. During my work, I have accumulated more than ten examples of students who passed the OGE and USE for fours and fives, but who had a grade between three and two at school.
I try to communicate with all students as with friends: the age difference between us is not that big - from two to nine years. In my opinion, this is more effective - it is pleasant and interesting for the guys to study. Of course, there are also disadvantages: some children feel my weakness and sit on their necks, and this is not always immediately obvious. In addition, I am very worried about their success, sometimes much stronger than the children themselves. This April I had a crisis: I could wake up at 4 in the morning from worries about one of my disorderly student. I even started having neurodermatitis, which I had never had before.
I communicate with the parents of children much less than with the students. Many people are generally not interested in what is happening to their child and what success he has. Although there are cute and caring mothers. A big plus of the tutor's work is the actual absence of the bosses. This role seems to be performed by parents, but there are many of them, and there is always an opportunity not to work with a specific family, without losing income.
The saddest thing in my work is the realization of how badly the school works. I got the impression that in the vast majority of places, teachers have no interest in students at all. The guys say that almost everyone in the class now has tutors. The modern school curriculum implies that the teacher somehow explains, and the child with a tutor delves into the essence. Gaps in children appear already in elementary school: 90% of my students did not know the multiplication table, and I taught mainly to high school students. Not being able to add and multiply fractions, open brackets, solve quadratic equations in 11th grade on the eve of the USE is generally a typical picture. At some point, I stopped being surprised that children are counting on their fingers. At about the same time, I stopped thinking that I would be left without students. The school seems to be sharpened so that any graduate of a more or less decent mother school could earn money.
I strongly condemned the teachers until I tried to get into school myself. I thought to get a job at a quarter of the rate: for such employment I was offered 3,750 rubles before deducting personal income tax. With such a salary, it is difficult to do something well, but where to get love for children, I have no idea at all.
Income
Most often, math classes last an hour and a half. In the beginning, I took about 800 rubles for 90 minutes. Now it is at least 1,200 rubles for the same time, orders for 1,600 rubles are considered profitable.
I never had a shortage of students, even when I was a student. 10 and 15 thousand rubles could come out per week. Although the income is so unpredictable that it is impossible to name the exact amount that goes out per month. I keep track of income and expenses in order to somehow control the cash flow. About 480 thousand rubles a year comes out, that is, about 40 thousand a month. In April and May, money just pours out of my pockets, things are much worse in the summer - there are almost no students. The first summer was the most difficult, on the second and third I guessed to borrow from my grandmother. I repaid the debt in the fall and now I take into account such features in my accounting department. In addition to the money from tutoring, my parents and grandmother give me 15 thousand rubles a month.
Spending
Money from relatives goes to housing and utility bills. The next item of expenses is food. I spend 4 thousand rubles on groceries, and about 5 thousand more on meals. I do not understand why it turns out so economically, because I constantly eat in public catering and choose whatever I like. I guess I just don't eat very much.
Every month I do a manicure, it takes 1,500 rubles. Sometimes I go to a beautician or for a massage. I have difficult skin to care for, I need specialized creams. I spend about 800 rubles a month on them and on rare purchases of medicines. I can buy something from cosmetics, shoes or clothes and spend 10 thousand rubles at a time. Although then I don't buy anything for a month or two.
Due to my busy schedule, I rarely go to have fun somewhere on purpose. I've been to the bar only once in the whole year. I visit my cousin and buy presents for my nephews. To relax, I go out to a cafe with my girlfriends. Sometimes I go to museums. Admission for students to my favorite Museum of Political History is a penny - 30 rubles. Sometimes I go to small theaters like the theater on Vasilievsky and to the cinema. Most of the money in this article I spend on gifts to family and friends - about 3.5 thousand rubles a month.
For several months this year I visited a psychologist, for a couple of months I had a vocal teacher. Then it took about 4 thousand rubles a month. Now my only constant hobby is sewing, I sometimes spend on fabrics.
I spend about 4 thousand rubles on trips outside St. Petersburg. My boyfriend lives in Moscow: sometimes I can come to him without warning, in this case I buy tickets myself. In the fall I was with my parents in Tenerife, we paid for my flight in half.
Urban transport also takes a lot. The BSK travel card costs about a thousand rubles a month, minibuses and taxis - another 4 thousand. I save on taxi first of all, if there is such a need.
Washing powders, dishwashing liquid, light bulbs and other daily expenses within 200 rubles, I put in the "small purchases" section, a thousand rubles a month. Previously, it took about 1.5 thousand rubles for mobile communications, I recently changed the operator and now I pay 600 rubles. It's a shame I didn't do that before. A separate budget item is new students, for an order I can give from 1 to 3 thousand rubles. I save the rest of the money for the summer.
I have no loans: with such employment it is difficult to get a credit card, and even at a normal interest rate. In addition, if I learned anything from the university, it is that you cannot take consumer loans for things that will not generate income in the future.
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