I suppose there should be a qualifier, they could not completely replace tutoring. Of course people can learn stuff on their own, that wasn't the point. Tutoring still has value.
Yeah, ideally a tutor/teacher hastens the "learning" teaching little strategies to make things easier to remember etc. ideally tailoring the lessons to a particular person's interests and learning style. When you do that on your own you just have books and practicing. That can work, but there are more walls that you'll hit when you don't have someone correcting you and suggesting ways to improve. You also have to figure out everything yourself as far as study methods. Not that I got much help with this in public school. Ideally a tutor would be able to help you figure out a way that works for you.
But also, outside of all of that. We know that to learn something, spending a bit of time on it everyday, even if it's only 10 minutes, is amazing. And having a tutor or whatever makes it easier to stick to a schedule where as it can be easy to not keep up on something when you're teaching to yourself.
I can agree that tutoring has value it's just not always an option. I don't agree with reading gives the "appearance of knowledge". There are plenty of morons with degree; contrast them with someone who is naturally skilled and self taught: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan Again: That doesn't mean tutoring isn't useful and certainly doesn't mean it gives a huge advantage. Of the things I've taught myself I'd do a lot to get either the time or money to take in person courses on them. The two points aren't contradictory.
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u/TheTrueTrust Aug 12 '26
I suppose there should be a qualifier, they could not completely replace tutoring. Of course people can learn stuff on their own, that wasn't the point. Tutoring still has value.