Offshoring teachers or offshoring parents?
■"Offshore learning online: Overseas tutors help students in USA," by Greg Toppo, USA Today, 30 August 2005, p. 1D.
Interesting story on how for-profit tutoring companies are increasingly turning to overseas tutors via online programs. By doing this, they tap into a labor pool that costs about $1.40 an hour, instead of $20-30 bucks an hour. If that helps a Sylvan lower its costs dramatically so that more families in America can afford tutors, is this a bad thing?
It certainly comes off as threatening to local teachers, but frankly, we're talking about extra teaching that school systems simply cannot supply in a cost-effective manner.
Then there's the accredidation question: can we trust these tutors? Well, any push in that direction is only going to force an India (where many of these tutors are found) to simply synch up their internal educational rule sets with those of the U.S. How hard can that be? My sense is not hard at all, and if pursued, it will establish yet another line of personal connectivity between our two economies that will facilitate the free movement of labor between them (both real and virtual).
To me, the real question isn't the outsourcing of teaching, but of parenting. I spent 15 minutes last night with son Kevin working on decimals, prompted in part by my wife's threat to take him to Sylvan if he got any bad grades (remember my wife's mania for math). Me, I just wasn't ready to outsource that function. No, I remember my Mom teaching me how to cross-multiply-and-divide as a little kid, and frankly, I've solved most of my life's great mathematical quandaries with this exceedingly simple trick.
And that connection to my Mom matters a lot of me, something I wouldn't have outsourced for all the cost savings in the world.
So yesterday I helped coach Kevin's cross country team, took my daughter Em to the driving range (armed with our new but cheap drivers and gloves; we start joint lessons on Thursday), did my time with Kevin on decimals, and worked a while with younger Jerry on writing his full name and learning our phone number and street address (yes, even kindergarteners have homework). Meanwhile, wife Vonne is working night and day with baby Vonne Mei on learning words, lest we feel the need to take up the state of Indiana's offer for free speech therapy.
All of this is outsourceable. We can pay people to do it all. But our philosophy is that we didn't have kids to outsource the parenting. It's why I've worked like a demon to fashion the career path I now enjoy, including its location in Indy. And it's why my wife has been a full-time mom for the last 10 years (with some huge personal regret on her part due to lost career opportunities; something I hope to fix to a certain degree with our new LLC that she will manage).
None of this has been easy. I didn't pick up a golf club until my eldest did, and I play primarily with my kids. I have no real friends that aren't work related. Doesn't mean they're not special. Just means that's a limit I've placed on myself.
You in-source the kids, you in-source the commitment. Cheat one, cheat them all.
And that's just not how my parents raised me.
Not bragging. I know what I've missed, like being a great pianist on the side or climbing Mt. Everest (a real dream that I've let pass me by through the accumulation of responsibility) or having that brutally self-focused career in DC that makes me Secretary of Defense someday. All real compromises for this A-type personality.
But you can't beat this: yesterday in the car on the way to cross country, I told Kev I wouldn't be at practice today because of my quick trip to NYC. "It's okay Dad," he said, "I just appreciate the fact that you try to be at every practice."
Imagine what a good dad Kevin will someday be. That is a future worth creating.
And there's no pride, in my mind, in being the great visionary of that global goal if I can't deliver it on an individual level to my kids.
Having said all that, there's nothing wrong with tutors. If Kev really needs the extra help, he'll get it. But it won't happen because our lives were too busy or complex or demanding.