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The Priced, and the Priceless

Posted by Michael Gold - October 13, 2009 - MGTutoring

Dinner at a restaurant, a baseball game, a day at the rodeo, a video game — material things come and go; they have a price.

But with education and tutoring — knowledge is forever; it is priceless. What you can take with you from a good teacher or tutor you can use forever, as is captured in the proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Good tutoring is worth the investment.

Compare the prices of other services:

Piano lessons can run $30 to $150 for an hour. The Parents Music Guide agrees with this. And on Answers.com someone makes the good point that (read carefully!) “In my opinion, paying $50 for 45 minutes of high standard tuition is much better than paying $25 for lessons that are next to useless.” This applies to tutoring as well.

Guitar lessons are a little cheaper, at $20 to $45 per hour. (Or more, I’d imagine!)

Horseback riding lessons are usually $25 to $60 per hour, or more.

Voice lessons can be $30 to $100 per hour, or more. Costhelper.com agrees.

Dance lessons cost $45 to $120 per hour, or more.

Personal trainers charge on average $60-$70 per hour.

In a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, “The ABCs on cutting tutoring costs: Studying the options can result in high marks for the money saved” (Mon 09/07/2009 Houston Chronicle, Section B, Page 6, 3 STAR R.O. Edition), Candice Choi (of Associated Press) writes:

THE arithmetic of hiring a tutor can keep you up at night. At $100 an hour, once a week, for the next several months or more, what are the costs?

Even as you scale back spending in the downturn, you’re probably not willing to compromise on your children’s education.
…
One way to cut costs is to team up with other families. If you’re using a tutoring company, the firm will generally do the grouping for you. At Kaplan Test Prep, for example, small-group tutoring of three kindergarten through eighth-grade students costs about $45 to $55 per session. That’s compared to about $60 to $75 for a one-on-one session.

Copyright © 2009 The Houston Chronicle

The best deal for your money — the best deal, period — is MGTutoring.

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Mythili R, parent of high school student,

"'Use logic in math' is my motto."
Sophia S, high school (I love that quote.),

"On my geometry quiz I got a 98% and it went really well and I felt I knew the info. Thank you for all the help and for assisting me when I did not understand something."
Casey C, high school student,

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Helen G, parent of middle school student,

"Thank you, Michael. He is gaining some confidence in what he does know and quickly admitting what he needs to work on. I am very happy with this method."
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Mary H, parent of high school student,

"At school we just memorize and repeat stuff back; you teach me to understand."
John T, high school student,

"If math was explained to me like this, I would have understood it a long time ago!"
Brooke Z, high school student,

"My average is actually a 96 right now and I made a 94 on the last quiz. We're still doing conics."
Kevin B, high school student,

"Oh! I just found out I made a 93 on the [AP Statistics] project-YAY!"
Taylor R, high school student,

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Helen G, parent of middle school student,

"You are doing an awesome job with how you handle him. I love the way you explain things to him. You are very kind and patient. Thank you."
Vicki W, parent middle school student,

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Casey L, college student,

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Marshall B, parent of high school students,

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Rob S, MBA student,

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Cindy Q, parent of high school student,

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John T, high school student,

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Tia Z, high school student,

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Corinna C, parent of high school student,

"Also, she just called me & said she made a 92 on her math test that she took right before spring break. :)) I'm very happy for her. THANK YOU! It would NOT be possible without your support!!!! I don't know what she's going to do at college!!!"
Melissa S, parent of high school student,

"Had a microbiology midterm this morning. On the exam there was a bacterial growth problem that required a little bit of math to determine the answer. I could not for the life of me recall the equation we were told to use...luckily I was able to reason out the equation using some logarithm rules (which I can't believe I remembered lol).

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Rajiv R, ex-student,

"Jack made a 100 on his major test today!!!!! He is so proud! Thanks so much!!!"
Joy R, parent of high school student,

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John T, former high school and college student,

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Donna G, mother of high school student,

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I hope she finishes up the year strong."
Mr. M, high school teacher of Madison S; quote from emailed note from teacher to parent,

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Joy R, parent of high school student,

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Rajiv R, former high school student ,

"Thanks for the [SAT] class - it was incredibly helpful and good practice."
Jessica P, high school student,

"Thank you again for your efforts and wonderful tutoring for both the SAT and ACT prep classes. I think the benefits reach far beyond good scores on standardized tests. I believe the skills you teach and emphasize have a tremendous impact on our kiddos critical thinking as well. You are greatly appreciated by our family!"
Michelle F, mother of high school student,

"Thank you so much for giving your time to teach the ACT and SAT prep classes. I really appreciate it, and I believe that it helped me greatly in taking the tests. I am very happy with my scores."
Courtney F, high school student,

"I wanted to thank you again for the ACT prep class. I got a 30 on the ACT on my first try. Your classes really prepared me - there's no way I could have gotten that without your help. So THANK YOU!"
Jessica P, high school student,

"I really did learn more than geometry and math taking classes with you. I learned to reason and use logic to start solving things in everyday life. It’s pretty useful at work when I use reasoning to find root causes, and to find and fix problems. You teach people how to THINK!"
Dylan T, ex-high school student now in his 20s,

I passed my welding engineer course after three years of studying on my own and applying the basic principles you instilled in me. I am now a certified Apprentice Welding Inspector recognized by the American Welding Society.

The skills you taught me allow me to outperform even on tests that are initially of an unfamiliar subject matter just due to the logic and the testing rules you taught me years ago.

Thank you!
Jimi T,

I hope more kids go to you for tutoring; you made me enjoy learning again.
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You're one heck of a tutor. College is a lot easier due to the way you taught me how to think.
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Matthew Hines, Houston Texas,

Michael expounds all that is science in such an interesting and exciting way! He always keeps my kids engaged and thinking that science is fun!

He presents science in a logical, rational, integrated way – making it easy and possible to take everything they are learning and apply it in ‘the real world’… not just a list of useless facts, but tangible, knowable, valuable life lessons.

He builds a great foundation with biology first and all the rest of the sciences following and integrating from there. Who knew that biology, physics, physical fitness, and chemistry are all related and integrated? Just take a few science classes with Michael, and you’ll see for yourself!

Whether you’re homeschooling and want to seriously upgrade your science curriculum or just want to supplement your child’s deplorably lacking public school science education. Michael will make science fun, interesting, and relevant to your kids’ lives – and yours!
Melanie H (homeschool mom of 3),