Private tutor - for home study and youth development
A private tutor was the realm of the super rich. This was a person who lived in house, often a grand country house with its own croquet lawn and woodland for weekend shoots. The tutor was expert at the classics, and trained the pupil endlessly in his own knowledge. He didn't need to follow any exam system.
This tutor has disappeared. New multiple tutors have appeared, not necessarily living in this big residence, but available at variable intervals, and more and more frequently online. Due to the global nature of educational qualifications, he is obliged to be au fait with the major school certificates acheived at age 13, 16 or 18. He must deliver controlled programmes between these levels, and ensure that the pupil gains passes. With personal attention surely this shouldn't be difficult.
Favourite teacher
So where does Challenge Europe come in to this transformation?
When we first started our training programmes, before Challenge Europe was created, we used a mixture of willing parents, and partly qualified teachers and coaches to deliver courses for the children. It occured to us very quickly that we were delivering a very different product to what we knew the children were experiencing at school. The parents and teachers were acting as this was a situation from their own youths. We were reproducing an old-style education of great intensity and passion, not exactly along the lines of a tutor, but not far off it.
Specialist attention
At the same time we had children who had sometimes switched schools frequently in their childhoods, some had had periods of their schooling when they had been in great difficulties, others had clear talents that needed prolonged and specialist attention, that didn't belong to a normal school curriculum. It quickly became clear that all of our children required at the least a highly personalised assessment of their needs.
Luckily we had some qualified teachers around us, some of whom hankered for a more satisying teaching life, a closer bond between them and the children they were trying to teach. The parents too reacted very positively to being able to discuss and participate in the growing up of their children.
Teamwork
The initial programmes involved the more popular sports, such as rugby, tennis, hockey, skiing, squash. The school teaching offered intensive revision courses for certain parts of the school programme. After a certain time we decided to offer prolonged sports training, and more structured lessons over a complete academic year. We then were in a position when the teachers or parents were to be committed to the project for several months on end - maybe only for a few hours per week - but the commitment to a professional service was assured. And at this time Challenge Europe was born. We had a whole range of people who were ready to work . We had also put in place a system of charges to make sure that any participants were able to cover any costs that they incurred. The courses were partly professionalised. There was money involved.
At the same time , 2002, some of the older participants had had their first experience with e-learning, or distance learning as it had been. It was already possible to obtain a degree by post, now you had the efficiency and nearness of a computer to get that diploma for you.
A scary prospect
At first e-learning scared the teachers, the fact that a pupil could get his programme at a click. He didn't need a person to deliver it. The teachers naturally resisted, and the pupils were slow to master the methods to educate themselves online, alone.
Now we are ten years later and this early mistrust has disappeared. We are not yet at a point of maturity in e-learning, but most parts of the jigsaw are in place. A personal tutor can be found among the pieces.
If you are child, your parents can take you out of school. Generally they are obliged by law to provide an education, either by themselves, or with declared tutors. So many private tutors are available, relatively cheap, and extremely good value, due to their effectiveness, that this is not a problem. Then all you have to do is register your child for some diploma relative to his age. This can be done through a range of websites.
Then all you have to do is decided what your child's daily life is to be like - what are his strengths and weaknesses, his likes and dislikes, his passions and hates, his typical daily moods and rythmns, his potential and his possibilities. You look at your child with a new sense of awe - you can do so much with him that would be impossible at school. And you can still achieve all of the necessary socialisation of the child simply by letting him enter the other world of schoolchildren through his activities.
Need a private tutor? - contact us
There then became a moment when we assigned a personal tutor to a child, a person who had a special responsability, and who was the main contact point for the parents. The tutor was selected because of his special knowledge, his availability, his rigour, and his ability to get results. Very quickly at Challenge Europe we realised that we had a special access to children's education, that we had proven experience in it, and through the skills of our teachers, sponsors, parents and supervisors an almost limitless palette of educational possibilities.
We established early on sports training, and gave special emphasis to competition sports; we ran classes to help children in difficulties; we ran various types of language classes for a very international clientèle; we were able to organise trips and accommodation in various countries, ranging from daily outings to spending as long as six weeks in a training camp. After a couple of years we found that some of our sponsors had found the learning potential of the children irresistible, and wanted to offer them skills in practical skills, like working with wood or machinery or textiles, or building materials, or new technologies.
At Challenge Europe we have the structure to deliver so much. The basis of our offer is to analyse the needs of a child, and then determine his needs. We assign a tutor to him, who'll work with him face-to-face and/or online. It can work for a day, or it can work for years.
The private tutor is alive and well.
