I actually worked for this place for two summers as a teacher because I was putting myself through college. I was working on a bachelor's degree in English at the time, so while I had a great deal of experience with reading and analyzing literature, I had almost no experience as a teacher. However, they made me fly to Florida to attend an intensive week of "training" in which I was basically taught to follow their scripted lesson plans, and forced to regurgitate the script precisely to their liking. They had absolutely no interest in my ideas about how to alter the lesson plans to make them more effective. I felt pretty terrible the entire time I was teaching for them because I think I knew deep down that I was contributing to a huge ripoff for parents who thought they were doing a good thing for their kids. The lesson plans are not challenging enough, the in-class and at home assignments are basically bullshit workbooks and cheesy DVD practice. The small class sizes an one-on-one time with instructors are really not true; some of my classes were over twenty students and their parents squeezed into tiny room, and I was expected to assess and teach a class for each of them. Or on the other end, I sometimes had classes with only two students enrolled, which made for a completely dead and ineffective classroom environment. The quality of the classes definitely do not add up to the ridiculous price of them. They are an institution that basically expects you to do as you're told, follow the script (literally), and keep your mouth shut. I no longer work for them, and I have to say it feels like an enormous weight has been lifted off of me. Honestly, you'd be far better off just going to the public library and checking out books your kids are interested in to read and practice with over the summer.
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