repeats

Times No Longer Pretending Its Private-Tutoring Stories Are Anything But Recycled

Perhaps you scanned this morning’s New York Times story on private tutors who help rich kids chase A’s and thought, Haven’t I read this before? Well, maybe you sort of have.

There was the November 2010 story on homework coaches. The September 2010 story on automated computer tutors. A 2010 Room for Debate fret-session on why kids are so reliant on tutors. (Maybe their parents have been reading the paper?). An October 2010 story in which a parent weighs the pros and cons. A 2008 piece on tutoring disorganized boys. A 2005 story on expensive tutors for standardized test. The world-is-flat 2005 story on outsourcing tutoring to India. A 2003 story on homeschooling parents who use tutors. Another story on homeschooling tutors in 2006. A 1999 story on SAT tutors who accompany families to the Hamptons. And on and on, deep into the archives.

But probably what you’re thinking of is this August 2010 piece in which the Times used a photo of the same woman, one Sandy Bass, in the same shirt at the same desk as in today’s photo to illustrate a story on private tutors for rich kids. Isn’t homework rule No.1 that you can’t copy work?

Push for A’s at Private Schools Is Keeping Costly Tutors Busy [NYT]
As Private Tutoring Booms, Parents Look at the Returns [NYT]

Times No Longer Pretending Its Private-Tutoring Stories Are Anything But Recycled