America's Need for Online Tutoring & Education

Online tutoring and education has taken over as a key player in America's educational system. With the growth in student population exceeding what schools can handle, educational assistance had to take a turn. Parents and schools are beginning to partner with online tutoring companies to help educate their students.

Education in today's world is a must. No longer can the youth of today rely upon only a high school education to get them where they want to be in life. As a matter of fact, today's 4-year college degree is becoming yesterday's high school diploma. There are some specific reasons as to why this has happened. Students in America's educational system are growing at a rate that the schools are not able to keep up with. We can also look to America's involvement in globalization. America has more international students studying in the states than ever before. This has created even more competition for the youth of America. Another aspect to look at is the life of students and resources available to them by the school. So what is being done now to help students deal with all these factors that have never before been an issue?

The answer is online tutoring and education.

With the large growth in students throughout America, schools have struggled to keep with the basic needs. According to OnTheIssues, the population of students in grades K-12 is over 50 million. This number is and has been steadily rising by 1 million students per year. OnTheIssues also notes that school spending for grades K-12 is now at $260 billion per year. As the amount of students continues to increase, the amount of spending will also continue to increase. This is not the only factor that is affecting students in a negative way.

Many students today, high school and college, do not have the time to research for sources and help on-campus. Mainly because students today are working jobs while taking full-loads in school. This leaves minimal time to be able to take advantage of a school's resources. Online tutoring and education is becoming the answer to this problem. WashingtonPost author, Mike Chediak, says that according to Sloan Consortium, more than 2.6 million students studied through online tutoring and educational courses last fall. This number is up from 1.9 million back in 2003, which is about a 23% growth rate in only one year.

It's also important to look at the resources that are offered by schools. The main goal of education is to prepare students for a career path. In high school this is a general path and in college this is a much more specific path. It is estimated that only 25% of 4-year college graduates actually work in the field that they earned their degree. Since online tutoring and education is able to cover such a broad area, students are able to get the help they need, when they need it. Online tutoring and education is now offered by some programs over a 24-hour period, which completely caters to the student's needs.

While schools are not keeping up with the resources to fully help their students, online tutoring and education is able to fill the gap. Many schools are starting to partner with online tutoring service companies so they can get their students the help they need. Online tutoring and education is a service that will continue to grow and thrive in the upcoming years for America.

Students Are Gifts

At my school, students are God's gifts to me. They are already wrapped, some beautifully and others less attractively. Some have been mishandled in the mail; others come "Special Delivery." Some are loosely wrapped, and others are tightly enclosed.

But the wrapping is not the gift, and this is important. It is so easy to make a mistake in this regard, to judge the contents of the gift by the wrapping paper.

Sometimes the gift (the student) is opened very easily; sometimes the help of others is needed. And maybe it's because they are afraid to be opened. Maybe they have been opened before, and because the last person didn't value them, they don't want to be opened again. It could be that when they were opened before, they were discarded and thrown away. They may now feel more like "things" instead of human beings.

At my school, just like my students, I too am a gift to be shared. God filled me with a goodness that is only mine. And yet sometimes even I'm afraid to look inside my own wrappings. Maybe I'm afraid I would be disappointed. Maybe I don't trust my own contents. Or maybe I've never really accepted the gift that I am.

Every meeting with my students is an exchange of gifts and an

opportunity to share. I'm a gift; they are gifts. We are gifts to each other.