At what point should a tutor draw the line?
What is the responsibility of a tutor? When I decided to become a tutor, I had very specific goals in mind. I was pursuing a Master of Education and looking to put my pedagogy into practice. I was learning so much in class but had no outlet to use what I was learning. It was not just about teaching students, but also the materials I would be teaching them. I wanted to work towards creating a library of materials over time, learning from students in a practical setting what works and what doesn't. I wanted the freedom to create my own teaching supplies and methods.
Some of my colleagues are of the belief that tutoring is only about helping with homework. In fact, some of the companies I work for are not structured in a way to allow for teaching original content. Their purpose is simply to provide a platform for students to seek and acquire homework help. As such, I have heard from colleagues that they do not prepare for more than 5 minutes and expect their students to arrive with assignments to be done. In this scenario, what happens if the student arrives at a scheduled session and says they do not have any homework or that they did not bring it?
Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I have other colleagues who apparently spend all their time even outside of tutoring sessions editing and correcting their students' assignments. This is time spent that is unpaid, and I have been told it could be up to 10 hours for every one hour of paid session. Granted, I am likely to spend just as much, but that is in the development of my own resources that I can reuse later, not in correcting my students' homework without benefit to me.
Parental Expectations
Some parents have specified to me that they would like me to help the student redo an assignment or better explain certain theories. Most, however, have asked me to teach new materials. Some have even said they would help the student do classwork themselves and asked me to assign additional homework. While I am not against teaching original material, since it serves my purposes as well, assigning and marking homework goes above and beyond what is acceptable as unpaid tutor work.
Parents have different expectations from their tutors and these should probably be set out in the tutoring agreement before instruction begins. This is much easier in a private tutoring scenario, but can be more of a challenge in a tutoring company with hundreds of tutors employing different methodologies.
In the end, each tutor should establish expectations early on with the student. Some tutoring companies have rules on what is permitted and what isn't, while other companies and private tutors leave the choice to the tutors themselves. In the latter case, it is important for the tutor to decide before accepting new students what is acceptable for the remuneration they garner and what additional work would be unpaid. If the student or parent is looking for a teacher for homeschooling rather than a tutor, the educator should recognize their worth and be remunerated accordingly.
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