Humour Shortage
The below correspondence is a recent reply I wrote to someone who contacted me through this site. His message to me is below mine to him…
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[Fname]
I know there are thousands of wealthy people in London who want a tutor, but hardly any of them need (or want) a full time tutor who lives in accommodation they provide and who travels with the family and its entourage. There are other companies that claim to offer what we offer, such as The Tutors Group (look up ‘radioactive paedophile’ in Google to see what their owner gets up to) Bonas MacFarlane, Quintessentially Tutors, Osborne-Cawkwell, Gabbitas, perhaps others… Have a look at the number of long term, full time placements that they are advertising and you will see that our ‘few’ is the market leader.
There has been a decline in the number of quality applications I am receiving. It’s a simple fact. Even some Oxbridge graduates or those who have a first in English, write to me with terrible syntax. I think it’s fair, anonymously, to comment on the biggest blunders. I’m sorry you don’t see the humour to be found from a qualified teacher who writes ’10-year’ when they mean ‘tenure’, or as someone did recently, ‘gradate’ when they meant ‘grade 8’. Finding humour in life’s everyday events is healthy, and just as you have the right to make your own blog and post your own comments about the world, so do I. That’s what our parents fought and (in some cases) died for.
Many of my Clients have dire situations, with children who have seriously lost their way. We are often contacted after everything else has failed and we provide real solutions where no-one else has been able to. You may not consider helping these few, special cases to be proper education, and once again you are entitled to your opinion and I do not begrudge you it.
I have not decided whether to publish your comment or my reply, and will consider this minor problem after I have helped some of my Clients with their major ones.
Have a lovely evening, and perhaps try to get some perspective from somewhere.
Regards
Adam Caller
Senior Partner, Tutors International
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I’m staggered by the quality of this website.
To read such arrogant and self-opinionated drivel about education on this website is not only embarassing for our sector but genuinely concerning.
This website sells tutors (who for some reason won’t or can’t work in the real education sector) to rich people – would you hire a teacher for your child who only tutored?
Yes, I’m sure TI also hires active teachers out of schools as well but if the teachers are that good, why are they taking a career break rather than furthering their careers in schools or in education in government?
Furthermore, to think that this website’s educational advice and philosophy is being listened to by people of genuine influence is worrying. It is the sort of stuff I used to hear my headmaster (private school unsurpringly!) witter on about in the 60’s – the world has changed a bit since then, young man! Move with it!
I know the tutoring market and there are literally hundreds and thousands of influential and wealthy families in London (mostly Middle Easterners, Americans, Chinese and Russians) and around the world who need high quality tutors and are willing to pay top whack for them. By comparison, with so few adverts on the TI website month after month, my only comfort is that most proper clients have seen through this sham and have gone elsewhere.
Lastly, in the same vein as another e-mailer wrote in (replied to in a very typical way), I think it is a disgrace and completely undefendable that this website is sometimes used as a platform to ridicule some of the very people who are able to provide its owner with a living. To actually pick apart people’s applications publicly – however good or bad they are and however anonymously it’s done – is pathetic.
Grow up, man up, remove that hulking great chip from your shoulder and try to make a proper living from education!
No doubt this message will not see the light of day or it too will get picked apart in the same way as others. Just read it though, hear its message and take note.
I resent the implication that tutors are failed teachers. I have worked as a full-time teacher, a supply teacher covering many subjects, a tutor in an after school centre and as a private tutor. In all of these environments I have learnt different things about how people learn and it has improved my pedagogical skill immeasurably. I do not consider my decision to tutor a ‘career break’ nor consider it outside the ‘real education sector’. From a tutor’s perspective, the opportunity to work one-on-one with a pupil is, in my opinion, much more rewarding in both the long and short… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more, as I hope my reply made clear.
The person who wrote to me was extremely rude and aggressive, a view, manner and position he’s entitled to hold and make. It is likely that he is one of the thousands that Tutor because they think they can teach, but who would be scared witless with any real responsibility for writing, delivering and assessing a course in a school.
I haven’t visited this site for a while now but interesting to note the brave yet anonymous message defending this silliness. I can’t imagine where you found someone to counter with such a view – I couldn’t have done better myself! Furthermore, me, rude and aggressive, Adam? Shame on you and check you own website. Tedious middle-men in glasshouses, Adam and all that…careful there, you might cut yourself! Lastly, I did enjoy your effort at pigeon-holing my career to suit your over-eager yet slow-witted assessment of me. If it helps, my career started with 8 years in a state school… Read more »
While I completely understand your not wishing any readers of my site to know your identity, it seems hypocritical to condemn others for wishing to hide theirs, while at the same time you claim a past that appears to be a figment of your imagination. I tried to reply to you by email, but the hotmail.com email address you gave bounced. Consequently I looked up your email address and found it was listed on some kind of spambot site (whatever that is). I have tried to contact you through St George’s school in Rome, but they say that no-one of… Read more »
Adam. It is the sign of a disturbed individual to maintain a website such as this. To publish and ridicule individuals who have submitted applications to your own company, is deeply offensive and unprofessional. To contact a school and publically admit to spending time to verify the claims of people who are allowed to leave comments here is….psychopathic. Are you aware of how badly this website portrays your character? At the very least it suggests you have too much time on your hands and you that struggle to use this time in a constructive way. Publish this if you dare… Read more »
Hello Mr Marr Thank you for taking the time to read my web site, or selective parts of it. Your comments are not original and I have responded to such views before – obviously it’s time to do it again. The very occasional examples I refer to here are not attributed to any one person and and are not trying to “ridicule individuals.” In showing the worst examples of how professional teachers, of all people, try to impress a potential employer that offers some exceptional teaching roles, I have three goals. The first is, to some extent, just my own… Read more »
Oh Adam, I am so disappointed that you have chosen not to allow the public to see my comments, I have obviously struck a raw nerve, I should have seen that you have a very delicate ego just from the nature of your postings, sorry Adam, is all forgiven?
Umm. I have published your comments.
Hey good for you!
Your powers of deduction are very impressive indeed, I can feel the dragnet closing around me.
You will have noticed that my IP address is in a different country this time. Yes, I jumped in a plane and went to an internet cafe in the Netherlands just to type this message for your benefit!
You may want to research just exactly what an IP address is (hint: they don’t really tell you too much and can be quite misleading).
Andy
Mr Marr… Still hiding in the shadows.