Question about SLC

[paulabelle]

Hello! I don't know if I'm in the right place, but I just found this site and hope maybe someone can either confirm OR unconfirm some things I've heard about Sylvan Learning Centers. I have a friend who is considering sending her child there and I think I've heard in the past it's not a good place spiritually. Have any of you had any expereinces with SLC or can you point me to some articles that I could send to her to help her make a wise decision?

Thanks!
Paulabelle

[jane]

Well,

around here Sylvan learning centers cater to children with learning disabilities or having difficulty with school work.

well, to those children with parents with big bucks.

I haven't heard of anything spiritual, religious or cultish about them.

I have heard that they have been successful in tutoring children and getting their grades up.

Of course I suppose anything is possible and each area has different experiences.

I think that ANY program that my children attend, no matter what the reputation of the name- I choose to thoroughly research and check it out.

Why, have you heard that they are a cult?

welcome to our group.

jane

[Voyager]

I took my daughter to Sylvan a few years ago and it really helped her in school. She was having trouble getting started in third grade, and Sylvan brought her up to speed. Within a month her grades improved. Sylvan has a reward system for learning, and they do not believe in punishing children. Kids get to pick out toys from a display rack when they earn a certain amount of points. It seems to work really well. The teachers have no more than four or five students at a time, so there is a lot of one-on-one help that goes on.

My former church would have probably said that Sylvan was spiritually bad - but they said that about all "secular" school systems. So it doesn't surprise me that someone would say that.

:cool:

[Theodora]

Hello! I don't know if I'm in the right place, but I just found this site and hope maybe someone can either confirm OR unconfirm some things I've heard about Sylvan Learning Centers. I have a friend who is considering sending her child there and I think I've heard in the past it's not a good place spiritually. Have any of you had any expereinces with SLC or can you point me to some articles that I could send to her to help her make a wise decision?

Thanks!
Paulabelle

Hi Paulabelle! First of all, I too would welcome you to the forum(s)--including its related possibilities like the "PM"= "Personal Message" which you'll find at the top of the screen. Click on that and you'll find a message from me....I HOPE!

In any case, to approach your question a bit, I too was curious as to what your friend might have heard which would have "flagged" the Sylvan Learning Center as a possibly dangerous spiritual environment. ?? I'm not sure how broad this service is, though I've seen TV ads for them...AND I'm not sure how much our experience in the Midwest would pertain to other areas of the country.

However, with that possible reservation in mind, I can report that we used the Sylvan Learning Center when our older (adoptive) son hit mid-adolescence with multiple challenges. (He's "gifted with learning disabilities"---a relatively new diagnosis at that time; borderline ADHD, borderline opposition disorder etc. ) We were fortunate to have been able to get a mentor for him in the schools and she did much to help keep him on track. (I've likened our son's challenges to being the person who not only can't "see the forest for the trees, " but would really prefer to be studying the BARK of a particular tree, while the task which the teacher is imposing is to analyze different types of forests! Sometimes it took a LOT of work to "redirect" this bright boy....all the while dealing with his frustration at not having HIS perception of the world validated by those around him.)

In any case, as an adjunct to whatever help he was receiving through the school system, we also thought Sylvan would be worth a try and had him there for about a semester. Their approach to validation of the student and working on tasks which the STUDENT could control to some extent seemed to be helpful and a boost to his self-esteem. I think it was when they tried to implement helping him with his VERY poor, very disorganized study skills that it proved to be too much for him....or other things were going on at the time, I've forgotten some of the details of that stressful period...thank God! So...that was the end of that. All in all, though, I'd give them a "B" or "B+" in their ability to assess what our student needed and to offer those services....and that, I'd guess, is pretty good for the kind of challenges our son presented!!!

Blessings to you and yours this day. I'll look forward to hearing more about your story too when/as you find time to post.

Again...welcome!

Theodora