October 04, 2006
Paging Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, White Courtesy Phone Please

Of all the things to become affected by outsourcing, I would've thought tutoring would be far down on the list. As usual, I'm wrong:

Private tutors are a luxury many American families cannot afford, costing anywhere between $25 to $100 an hour. But California mother Denise Robison found one online for $2.50 an hour -- in India.

"It's made the biggest difference. My daughter is literally at the top of every single one of her classes and she has never done that before," said Robison, a single mother from Modesto.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, is one of 1,100 Americans enrolled in Bangalore-based TutorVista, which launched U.S. services last November with a staff of 150 "e-tutors" mostly in India with a fee of $100 a month for unlimited hours.

I'm not surprised the accents that adults find so difficult are not a major barrier to their children. Olivia has learned a lot of Farsi from her daycare providers, and is quite able to understand their English.

There's definitely a certain symmetry involved when the people who are "stealing our jobs" are getting paid to teach our children to create their own future. Could this represent a final, fatal breach in the dam held up for so long by the US teachers' unions?

Posted by scott at October 04, 2006 03:07 PM

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