I know the issue at hand is economic success. But–beyond making sure the roof doesn’t leak and the kids are fed–I think inherent in some of you post is the idea that a benefit of prosperity is empowerment. And well-fed, warm-and-dry, older White woman that I am, I am sad to to say at this moment in our history, I don’t feel at all empowered. I feel stifled and, yes, disenfranchised. I don’t think it would be different if I were a white male either. Not unless my name were Cheney.

So perhaps it comes down to something more subtle or complicated or insidious than–dare I say it you and to Steve?–economics. I would love to engage with you further about what.

“[I]f you’re a baby boomer, then for the love of God please understand that you are the one with the power to change it. Your generation runs everything.” So maybe this isn’t exactly true.

Your analysis is about the same as mine. Initially, I was going to take on maybe four or five or six students, because while I was sure it would be time consuming, I thought it would be worth my time. I had not considered (for some reason) the initial investment of my time – probably because I overestimated my knowledge of Algebra II/Trig.

In any event, it was not my intention to continue in this job past the middle of June, since that’s the end of the school semester (and I’ll probably be starting a job by then). It is doubtful that such is enough time that taking on students will not simply mean higher and higher fixed costs. Still, this must be a commitment because the students need continuity. If I’m gonna quit, I gotta do it now.

But I admit – I get a satisfaction out of it. So maybe I just need to stick with it.

First, don’t do it for the money. If that’s your goal, you should probably do something else. If you want to do the job well, you’re going to have to commit a lot of time up front (a fixed cost) to getting yourself up to speed. If you think about the implied average hourly wage, it’s almost certainly not going to be worth it.

If you do this, will you have just one student for the period or multiple students? One student means one set of fixed costs. More than one means more than one set. At some point, as you add students, you’ll start to duplicate subjects so you won’t have those fixed costs. But are you planning on doing this for that long?

how you been?