Does getting your child coached really help? Should you…?

Private educational coaching and tutoring is a significant development in education but surprisingly receives little attention given the vast numbers and dollars involved. Coaching has always existed but the 1980s saw the beginning of a significant surge, fuelled in part by the introduction of an entry exam for selective high schools. Although these schools make up only about four per cent of all schools in NSW thousands of Year Six students feel compelled to compete, mostly encouraged no doubt by their parents. These parents turn to coaching colleges and tutors to increase the chances of success. By the turn of the century there was also increasing debate about the form and fairness of the selective schools test and indeed about the methods and claims of some coaching colleges.

More specifically as multiculturalism in Australia has increased so has the number of Asian parents who use coaching and tutoring to assist their children to make the most of available opportunities. Inside Chinese newspapers literally dozens of coaching schools advertise their services. This is almost a way of life for many children. Back in China the pressure to succeed academically is intense, with many children attending special ‘cram’ schools to improve their chances of entering a college or university. This is especially important for children living in country areas that don’t have access to the quality of education available in the cities.

Chasing the ATAR

In Sydney this general orientation to education also seems to have gained hold. Children of all ages are now being coached from primary school right through to Year 12. Some children spend their whole weekend going from one coaching school to another and some even have two or more coaches for the same subject, such as English. Their parents truly leave no stone unturned. Ironically children in the best schools seem to be coached the most—chasing a very high ATAR to gain entry to their dream university courses.

There is though a growing chorus of criticism about what some people consider ‘hothousing’ of children. Most teachers are not enthusiastic about coaching, tolerating it, but feeling that it is somehow un-Australian. Private schools, in contrast, run extra classes before and after school to help students. Overall, students who are being coached often resent the extra work, but in the end accept it because so many of their friends are doing it. A very small number of students even ask their parents to arrange coaching.

Will a second class university be OK?

One of the driving forces of coaching is the idea that if students attend the best schools followed by professional courses in the best universities there will be significantly more wealth and income later on. Well research does show that university graduates, when compared to non-university graduates, do earn significantly more over a lifetime. But research also shows that it is not necessary to do the top courses at the top universities, and in fact a second class university may do just fine for many students.

A study of about 11,000 very wealthy people, millionaires and billionaires, conducted by Thomas J. Stanley and William D Danko, and reported in their well known book, The Millionaire Mind, found that the majority of these wealthy people were not able to attend a selective or competitive university. In fact about half of them were only ‘C’ level students at school. Most were told that they were not good enough to enter a law or medical school, being labelled as having ‘average or less’ ability. So what then did these millionaires attribute their success to? Integrity, discipline and hard work. No-one should be surprised at this, but it’s something that needs to be remembered in the present frenzy for academic success, sometimes at the expense of a whole childhood.

The risks of coaching

So does this mean that parents should not consider coaching or tutoring, or that this type of extra help does not get results? Let’s consider the negative side first.

First, coaching can encourage children to be irresponsible. This would occur in situations where the children and their parents believe that the coach will do everything, and that a once a week lesson with the coach will somehow be more effective than five days at school. There is a risk that the child becomes progressively worse, in every way possible.

Second, many children, even though they want to try at completing the extra work set by coaches, find that their health is just not up to it—they become sick more often. Such children are often frightened to stay home when they are sick because they might ‘miss something’ at school and fall behind.

Of course coaching in general, as with all homework, takes children away from being outdoors, and all too often puts them in front of a computer screen for extended periods of time. This can have a negative effect on their health, particularly eyesight. In truth some parents are putting their children’s eyesight at risk to achieve what they consider to be the very best education results.

Third, many children whose parents engage coaches or tutors, are already lazy, and lack the ability to concentrate and engage over long periods. This is the reason why their schoolwork may be less successful than it should be, and this is the reason why parents may be disappointed. Effective coaching requires a commitment from both students and parents.

The benefits of coaching

Now the positive side. Coaching can be a successful option if it provides teaching that is not available at a particular school. There are two main reasons why this might be so. First, student behaviour and general school tone might be so bad that teachers cannot teach. If children are yelling out, swearing at the teacher, walking around the room, throwing things, running out of the room etc. most students will learn almost nothing. Second, schools may not be able to provide the level of teaching required. If for example a student wants to do the very highest level of maths in Year 12, called 4 unit maths in NSW, most maths teachers are not capable of teaching it effectively, and indeed couldn’t do the HSC paper even if they had all weekend.

The other situation where coaching can be effective is where students need to regain confidence in the classroom for some reason, or where students have fallen behind, perhaps through illness or by changing schools, or perhaps just through letting bad results continue. Good coaching can encourage these students, and also their parents, so that the child can catch up, and can become more effectively engaged in the classroom. Coaching must have as one of its main aims more effective learning in the classroom. Indeed with encouragement and observed improvement most children want to work harder at school.

Another benefit of coaching is the provision of assistance to parents. Often parents have little idea of what is happening at school, or what is expected, or for older children how to obtain information concerning career choice and university entrance. Sometimes even schools themselves are unable to provide a full range of educational resources so coaching can assist here also.

So the choice is yours, as a parent. Your son or daughter’s ideas should be taken into the decision making process. Parental over control can help produce a fairly useless young adult. But coaching must be done in moderation, as should school homework. Success in school subjects with essay writing requires an element of personal creativity, and that means imagination. But imagination can only grow when the child has sufficient time for play, to construct their own world, over an extended period. If this is taken away then school progress can become a disappointing slog.