<story><title>Tutorspree (YC W11) Is An Airbnb For Tutoring</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/tutorspree/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ImperatorLunae</author><text>From the FAQ:
&quot;...only experienced educators - PhD&apos;s, high school teachers, special education instructors, and professors with real classroom experience - can list themselves on Tutorspree.&quot;&lt;p&gt;Really? This seems a little stringent. High school teachers are busy teaching high school; PhD&apos;s are busy conducting research or teaching their own classes. Of course, some of them are going to pick up tutoring on the side for some extra money, but you&apos;re screening out huge portions of the available pool of tutors.&lt;p&gt;Consider my position; I have a BS in Physics and currently tutor a few students--mostly in calculus and geometry. Of course, I don&apos;t have &quot;classroom experience,&quot; but I&apos;ve been tutoring students for a while. I know my stuff, and I know when my students don&apos;t. I know how to read their math, catch mistakes, and work through their errors with them. I know how to identify recurring mistakes students make and prescribe problems to remedy those errors. I&apos;m not an educator, but I know the subjects I&apos;m teaching. That&apos;s as good as any grad student working as a TA, and they&apos;re teaching at the university level.&lt;p&gt;Why the high requirements? I understand the need for quality, but I sense, more often than not, students are looking for someone who knows the material to correct and guide them. You don&apos;t need a PhD to do that.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jacquesm</author><text>Personally I like the Karate method: everybody teaches what they know all the time.&lt;p&gt;High requirements are a good way to get started though, that way you can set the bar high, guarantee good reviews and happy customers, then slowly relax the rules. The other way around wouldn&apos;t work nearly as well.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;d say being a college student should allow you to help out high schoolers in the subject of your studies though, likely you are aware of the problems the high schoolers face better than anybody else, likewise high schoolers should be allowed to tutor grade schoolers.&lt;p&gt;There might be a nice &apos;certification&apos; gig hidden in here somewhere.</text></comment>
<story><title>Tutorspree (YC W11) Is An Airbnb For Tutoring</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/26/tutorspree/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ImperatorLunae</author><text>From the FAQ:
&quot;...only experienced educators - PhD&apos;s, high school teachers, special education instructors, and professors with real classroom experience - can list themselves on Tutorspree.&quot;&lt;p&gt;Really? This seems a little stringent. High school teachers are busy teaching high school; PhD&apos;s are busy conducting research or teaching their own classes. Of course, some of them are going to pick up tutoring on the side for some extra money, but you&apos;re screening out huge portions of the available pool of tutors.&lt;p&gt;Consider my position; I have a BS in Physics and currently tutor a few students--mostly in calculus and geometry. Of course, I don&apos;t have &quot;classroom experience,&quot; but I&apos;ve been tutoring students for a while. I know my stuff, and I know when my students don&apos;t. I know how to read their math, catch mistakes, and work through their errors with them. I know how to identify recurring mistakes students make and prescribe problems to remedy those errors. I&apos;m not an educator, but I know the subjects I&apos;m teaching. That&apos;s as good as any grad student working as a TA, and they&apos;re teaching at the university level.&lt;p&gt;Why the high requirements? I understand the need for quality, but I sense, more often than not, students are looking for someone who knows the material to correct and guide them. You don&apos;t need a PhD to do that.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rottencupcakes</author><text>You gotta start somewhere. High education is probably a decent signal of quality, and thus a good, cheap way to verify quality early on. They could then increase the size of the tutor pool after they have enough highly rating, vouched for tutors to guarantee a quality experience.</text></comment>