Outsourcing your algebra homework

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January 11, 2005

At the tender age of 28 I have already become a bitter old man. Kids these days, I just don’t understand. When I was young we played Pacman and Frogger on the Atari. Now they have Halo and Grand Theft Auto. I used an AM/FM Walkman and now they have these Ipod things. This news however just pushed me over the edge. Now you can actually outsource your algebra homework if you were to properly abuse a new tutoring service by Growing Stars Inc.

Twice in a week, Ann Maria, a sixth grader at Silver Oak Elementary School, California logs on to the internet from home after school hours. Ann is not chatting up her friends.

She is connecting to her personal tutor, already online, armed with headset and a pen mouse sitting in a call centre like cubicle almost a timezone away in Panampillynagar, Kochi, Kerala.

Your neighbourhood tuition teacher, riding on the Information Technology Enabled Service (ITES) wave, has gone global and his monthly pay packet turned meatier - the 17 teachers who work with the Growing Star Infotech (P) Ltd will testify. The firm a subsidiary of California-based Growing Stars Inc went online in January last year.

Ok, I know I am being unfair. This is a legitimate service. The testimonials are glowing. Still, you guys can see the potential for abuse by crafty kids can’t you? If my memory serves me correct though, Indian parents teach math with a rolling pin in one hand to smack you if you don’t properly carry out addition. THAT’S going to be hard to pull off virtually.

News

POSTED BY abhi @ 10:29 PM

6 comments

1 · Anand on January 12, 2005 3:02 AM · Direct link

Many undergrad students google the keywords and get answers to their assignments from someone's webpage. This perhaps is better than that!

2 · deepa on January 12, 2005 8:13 AM · Direct link

Indian parents teach math with a rolling pin in one hand to smack you

For me, it was disappointment/guilt used as rolling pin. Very, very effective.

-D

3 · Sluggo on January 12, 2005 9:44 AM · Direct link

"With Roman Catholic clergy in short supply in the United States, Indian priests are picking up some of their work, saying Mass for special intentions, in a sacred if unusual version of outsourcing," The New York Times reported...No other Indian state receives more intentions from overseas than Kerala, where the Masses are conducted in Malayalam.

http://sify.com/news/othernews/fullstory.php?id=13498514

4 · Word on January 12, 2005 12:25 PM · Direct link

The interesting part of this is going to be the cultural difference in the teaching. The way I remember being taught was to keep accumulating "page views" in my mind and then have an epiphany one day about how it all fits together. That came much later in life and so for some time after learning about atoms, I used to think that it was that segment between the lines on the back of your hand that you could see if you looked up close...:-) Weird idea...I dont know where I got it from...

At times it felt that what was being taught had no connection to the outside world..that all these were secret incantations you had to learn to get a free pass out of school...

Now I am older, I appreciate all that was stuffed into me....But I wonder if that style has changed and if it hasnt, how well would that jell with the New age requirements on not stressing your brain too much...:-)

5 · Mike on January 12, 2005 2:20 PM · Direct link

I still have the marks from trying to learn my multiplication tables. I was in a coma when it came to trig.

6 · MD on January 12, 2005 5:19 PM · Direct link

Rolling pin-schmolling pin!

Try having a math prof as a dad. So on top of all that Indiany math pressure, there was math teacher math pressure. I got as far as linear algebra before I realized that God did not intend me to do math. Whatever the 'rents said.

Comments closed.