One third of students receive extra-curricular support
Spanish families spend an average of 800 euros a year in private classes at home as reinforcement for their children, according to data from Educa-System, a pioneer in Spain in the home-based private classes. At present, 31 percent of Spanish students receive some type of extra-curricular support.
It is 2.7 million students, of which the majority (1.9) receives the support of a teacher at home, while 800,000 attend academies.
When a child brings bad grades, the first reaction of the parents is to think that they have done the lazy and that with more hours of study the problem will be solved. After seeing that the child spends more time to be "in front of the books" and the situation does not change, we turn to a private teacher to explain what he has not understood in class and control the homework duties.
However, although in many cases the bad grades of the children are due to their immaturity, it is advisable to go to a specialist for rule out any neuropsychological deficiency or delay in thinking skills. There are simple programs that, applied with constancy, will help the child to take full advantage of their abilities. A good foundation in Primary is a guarantee of success for the stages of Secondary, Baccalaureate and university.
Private teacher: only during the necessary time
It is not good to get used to the private teacher, so the ideal time to require this external help will depend on each student, the motivation with which they face the classes, the difficulties they have to overcome, the effective performance that the classes are producing. and the follow-up that parents make to the teacher's work. In any case, just enough time for our son to be autonomous in their studies.
If it is customary to work with a private teacher, we run the risk that the child relaxes in school knowing that he has help at home, thinking that the teacher is going to substitute his personal effort; so reinforcement at home will be counterproductive. If you must teach him to make schemes, for example, that he does it with already studied subjects, not with those that the teacher is explaining, because in this way we force him to be attentive to the class explanations.
How to know what is the right teacher?
1. If you demand work and effort from the child, trying at the same time to correct the gaps that may have, both knowledge and lack of study method.
2. When the child requires a prior and subsequent study to each particular class and follow up to assess progress.
3. If you get the child to take a liking to their subjects and to know more about them, in short, to learn more, enabling them to be autonomous and make a personal effort in the study.
4. If you know how to give some well-directed advice, inculcating the child values such as the importance of making good use of time, be orderly, constant, organized in their study, striving to do a job well done and to the end.
Marisol New
