A tutor can be that key person in a student’s life who gives them direction or helps focus them in the direction they appear to be headed.
But one of the biggest drivers for parents in Northern Virginia to get a tutor is because of the competition in the area for not just a well-educated student but for the opportunities that the student can find as a result. “If you want your child to go to one of the top 20 colleges in the country, we are going to train your child to be able to do that,” Maureen Loftus, owner of the LearningRx Tysons Brain Training Center, says. LearningRx uses mental workout sessions, or brain training, to target weak cognitive skills in both children and adults. “Some communities really value academic performance, and they hire tutors to make sure that their child is achieving at the levels that their value system is hoping for.”
Chris Rice, center director of C2 Education of Fairfax, acknowledges that some of the best students in the country are in Fairfax. C2 Education has over 180 tutoring centers across the country serving more than 10,000 students. “Because we have the best students here, we have two things to consider,” he says. “First, that means that there is very stiff competition for jobs. And two, just because you received a good education doesn’t mean that you are done.”
Dr. Ralph Perrino, who, along with his wife Denise, founded Northern Virginia Tutoring Service, LLC, in 1995, has a master’s degree in public administration and a doctoral degree in education from George Mason University. He says that some of the most successful people in the world are not the most brilliant people. “They just have been extremely organized. They value their time well. They know how to study and glean information from other people in work groups. That’s our focus, study skills,” he says. “Those include time management skills, critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills, working in groups instead of just learning technical skills. They should learn to have a deep and abiding thirst and desire for information and knowledge.”
(May 2018)
