Looking for an Ivy-Covered Back Door? Forget It!

One of the best features of living in the Princeton area is that, like the focus of some kind of knowledge-based solar system, the university is orbited by an extremely well-educated general population. The area is peppered with a variety of public and private schools buzzing with instruction and competition as students and their parents seek a way to gain formal admission to either Princeton or some place like it. Elite private universities like Cornell and Stanford, or their public counterparts like Rutgers or UCLA, beckon to our area residents as gateways to success…if we can only gain admission…admission!

Along with nervous area residents ambitious for the success of their children, an entire industry has arisen, especially over the past 30 years. Call it what you will…tutoring, educational coaching, application enhancement, learning centers, etc. Some of these firms are reputable and others, despite impressive names like “Orange Tiger Tutors” or “Ivy Link” are rather seedy, fly-by-night operations. But all of them are for-profit businesses. This important fact doesn’t make them bad, immoral or corrupt, but the Red Cross they’re not. They want to make money.

I have a lot of experience with these businesses and the exams they claim to prep their clients for. As a high school social studies teacher, I have been fortunate enough to teach a wide variety of Advanced Placement History and Government courses. I’ve been doing this for well over a decade. I’ve written officially approved syllabi for them, created classroom exams and projects, designed study guides, fashioned Power Points and, of course, taught lessons. I’ve done all of this for classes like A.P. World History, A.P. United States History, A.P. Comparative Government, A.P. American Government and A.P. European History. The College Board –the administrators of all A.P. exams - has selected me twice as an examiner. I also graduated from my B.A. program as a Rutgers Scholar and I quickly went on to complete an M.A. in political science, also at Rutgers. When it comes to A.P. exams…at least in the humanities…I’m no Spring Chicken. I probably know at least or more about these exams, their format and material than anyone at these so-called “Learning Centers.”

These businesses frequently advertise – aggressively - that they can give students an “edge” or teach them a “secret” sort of skillset to navigate or “crack” these exams, and thus, move through the open gates of some prestigious university. Images of smiling students, ivy covered walls and A pluses adorn their literature. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of writing a check to one of these establishments, you know it’s not cheap. Some demand more than $100 an hour for their “expertise.” 

Parents have, in my opinion, largely ‘bought in’ to the services that these businesses claim to render. This is too bad, because there’s really no replacement for real study. Here’s a good example: 

Over the summer I responded to a “Tutor Wanted” ad on Craigslist. I thought it might be a good way to bring in some extra money doing what I do best, teaching history. I’ve been tutoring for some time and it typically works out well. My customers were a father, probably in his late 40’s and his daughter, a high school junior. For the sake of their privacy, I’ll call them Mr. James, and his daughter, Marie. He made it plain at the interview that he was ambitious for her, and that he expected her to show up to all appointments on time, listen, take notes and work hard. We planned to work twice weekly, with each session being two hours. Four hours of supplementary instruction a week. That was a lot of time to work with, and with the A.P. European History exam months away, I planned on covering a great deal of material.

Our first “class” or “session” was on a Saturday afternoon at Princeton’s public library, a lovely building with its own coffeehouse. Marie arrived, on time, with her books, a few marked exams and her teacher’s syllabus (as per my request). She was very familiar with the exam and its format, which was a relief. Like any concerned teacher starting out with a new student, I gave her a short multiple-choice diagnostic “quiz” to test for previous knowledge. I also spoke with her for about 15 minutes on her knowledge of history in general. I was surprised because, despite the fact that she was attending one of the area’s most “prestigious” private schools, she knew little of the material already covered. I asked her if her teacher ever got up and literally taught or reviewed the material. “Nah,” she answered. “We spend most classes doing projects.” Project based learning is a real craze in secondary schools all over the country, and in my opinion, is largely responsible for the fact that we’re graduating kids that literally know nothing. Administrators everywhere want to see “students as workers” and “student involvement in knowledge and its creation.” The result, of course, has been disastrous. But that’s a subject for another blog…

After looking at her diagnostic quiz, I could see where Marie was in need of instruction. Advanced Placement European History is a vast course, with material reaching from the Renaissance and Reformation to the present day. Marie knew little of the major totalitarian regimes and ideas of the mid-20th century, namely Nazism and Communism. She had confused Hitler with Stalin, and on another answer indicated that Hitler was the author of the term “arsenal of democracy,” rather than Franklin Roosevelt.

So for the next hour and a half, I taught her about Nazism. We read an article about Germany and the devastation it experienced during the Great Depression. We spoke about the Treaty of Versailles, the roots and growth of Anti-Semitism. We discussed the personality, childhood and early adulthood of Adolf Hitler. I explained to her the weaknesses of the Weimar System, and we discussed Hitler’s attempt to overthrow the then-democratic German Government. We moved on to the hideous ideas in Hitler’s Mein Kampf on German superiority, his obsession with Jews, and his profound confidence in the great underlying evil of his belief system, the concept that justified all of the Nazis’ crimes: Racial Darwinism. We also took the time to examine a map of Europe in the 1930’s, with all of its twisting borders and enclaves, many long since vanished.  We actually went a few minutes over, we were working so well. I wrapped it up by quizzing her on what she got out of the session, what she had learned. After the session I shook her hand, gave her some reading homework and went on my way.

I thought that the session went smoothly, and I was surprised when her father called the next day to cancel all future sessions. This wasn’t the end of the world; every year I take on five or six students and one or two usually drop out for a variety of reasons. Nevertheless, I asked him what the problem was, and his answer was just so typical and demonstrated the enormous amount of time and money people will spend for a perceived shortcut or advantage. “She told me that for most of the session, all you talked about was Germany and History. That is just knowledge, but I want you to teach her the secrets of the exam, so she can get a five. She needs to learn how to get a high score.” A five is the highest grade on most A.P. Exams.

I took a breath and tried not to sound too perturbed. “Mr. James, I do not mean to sound insulting, but I have been doing this for a long time. Believe me when I tell you that while you are free to hire any tutor of your liking, the facts will not change. If your daughter, or any student for that matter, seeks to earn a good grade on any A.P. exam they must master the material. There are no shortcuts here. When your daughter sits down for that exam she’s going to have to complete essay questions and document based questions. If she gets an essay question on Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, and she cannot even find Germany on a map or explain whom Joseph Stalin was, the result will not be an outstanding grade. It will take an enormous amount of work and effort on her part to learn this material. There are no shortcuts or special techniques.”

My words must have gone right through his head without result, because he politely thanked me and hung up the phone. That was the last I heard of him, so I rearranged my weekend tutoring schedule and carried on.

About a week and a half later I was having some coffee and waiting for a student at the Princeton Public Library. I looked to the other side of the restaurant and, voila, there was Marie with a new tutor! My replacement’s fate looked bleak though; she spent much of the time nodding “no” and periodically putting her face in her hands.

I don’t think that Mr. James’ money will be getting Marie into the “college of her choice” anytime soon. Area parents ought to expect the same. Hard work, diligence and scholarship, even in this very corrupt age, still have some value.