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Little Women

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In genre studies , a coming-of-age story is a genre of literature , theatre , film , and video game that focuses on the growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood, or " coming of age ". Coming-of-age stories tend to emphasize dialogue or internal monologue over action and are often set in the past. The subjects of coming-of-age stories are typically teenagers. The Bildungsroman is a specific subgenre of coming-of-age story.

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103-430: Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott , originally published in two volumes, in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel. Little Women

206-465: A mansion in Plumfield. Beth, too timid for school, is content to stay at home and help with housework; and Amy is still at school. Meg is beautiful and traditional, Jo is a tomboy who writes, Beth is a peacemaker and a pianist , and Amy is an artist who longs for elegance and fine society . The sisters strive to help their family and improve their characters, as Meg is vain, Jo is hotheaded, Beth

309-415: A "hearth and home" children's story. Women's literature historians and juvenile fiction historians have agreed that Little Women was the beginning of this "downward spiral". But Elbert says that Little Women did not "belittle women's fiction" and that Alcott stayed true to her "Romantic birthright". Little Women ' s popular audience was responsive to ideas of social change as they were shown "within

412-558: A "hot" temper that often leads her into trouble. With the help of her own misguided sense of humor, her sister, Beth, and her mother, she works on controlling it. It has been said that much of Louisa May Alcott shows through in these characteristics of Jo. In her essay, "Recollections of My Childhood," Alcott refers to herself as a tomboy who enjoyed boys' activities, like running foot-races and climbing trees. Jo loves literature, both reading and writing. She composes plays for her sisters to perform and writes short stories. She initially rejects

515-449: A Teenage Girl (2015), Mistress America (2015), The Edge of Seventeen (2016), Lady Bird (2017), Sweet 20 (2017), Aftersun (2022) and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023). Tutoring Tutoring is private academic help, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects. A tutor , formally also called an academic tutor ,

618-409: A baby daughter, Josephine "Josie" Brooke, who is 14, at the beginning of the final book. According to Sarah Elbert, "democratic domesticity requires maturity, strength, and above all, a secure identity that Meg lacks". Others believe Alcott does not intend to belittle Meg for her ordinary life and writes her with loving detail, suffused with sentimentality. The principal character, Jo, 15 years old at

721-508: A brother and that she could not love him in a romantic way. Jo decides she wants a bit of adventure and to put distance between herself and Laurie, hoping he will forget his feelings. She spends six months with a friend of her mother who runs a boarding house in New York City, serving as governess for her two children. Jo takes German lessons with another boarder, Professor Friedrich Bhaer. He has come to America from Berlin to care for

824-418: A coaching center or a "study circle." In-home tutoring is a form of tutoring that occurs in the home. Most often the tutoring relates to an academic subject or test preparation. This is in contrast to tutoring centers or tutoring provided through after-school programs. The service most often involves one-on-one attention provided to the pupil. Due to the informal and private nature of in-home tutoring, there

927-405: A collection of short stories, instead. Niles pressed her to write the girls' book first, however, and he was aided by her father, Amos Bronson Alcott , who also urged her to do so. Louisa confided to a friend, "I could not write a girls' story knowing little about any but my sisters and always preferring boys". In May 1868, Alcott wrote in her journal: "Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write

1030-402: A consequence of the popularity of shadow education, private tutoring can sometimes overshadow mainstream education with more priority given to enrolling in private tutoring centers. Mark Bray claims that "Especially near the time of major external examinations, schools in some countries may be perceived by pupils to be less able to cater for their specific needs." In a 2009 research performed by

1133-635: A decision, based on her limited artistic talent, how to direct her adult life. She encounters "Laurie" Laurence and his grandfather, during the extended visit. Amy is the least inclined of the sisters to sacrifice and self-denial. She behaves well, in upper-class society, and she is at ease, with herself. Critic Martha Saxton observes the author was never fully at ease with Amy's moral development, and her success, in life, seemed relatively accidental. However, Amy's morality does appear to develop, throughout her adolescence and early adulthood, and she can confidently and justly put Laurie in his place, when she believes he

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1236-549: A girl's book. I said I'd try." Alcott set her novel in an imaginary Orchard House modeled on her residence of the same name, where she wrote the novel. She, later, recalled that she did not think she could write a successful book for girls and did not enjoy writing it. "I plod away," she wrote in her diary, "although, I don't enjoy this sort of things." By June, Alcott had sent the first dozen chapters to Niles, and both agreed that they were dull. But Niles's niece, Lillie Almy, read them and said she enjoyed them. The completed manuscript

1339-676: A house and be ready, when he marries Meg. Laurie goes off to college. On Christmas Day, a year after the book's opening, the girls' father returns home. (Published separately in the United Kingdom as Good Wives ) Three years later, Meg and John marry and learn how to live together. When they have twins , Meg is a devoted mother, but John begins to feel neglected and left out. Meg seeks advice from Marmee, who helps her find balance in her married life by making more time for wifely duties and encouraging John to become more involved with child rearing. Laurie graduates from college, having put in

1442-444: A mechanism to provide tutoring services in contrast to more traditional in-person teaching. Paired with in-person tutoring, some of the benefits include the opportunity for learning motivation growth for both the tutor and the tutee. Online tutoring is now a very popular way for students at top higher education institutions to earn money to support their studies during term time, but not all universities are in favour of this. One of

1545-641: A new neighborhood (loosely based on Concord ) in Massachusetts in genteel poverty . Having lost all his money, their father is serving as a chaplain for the Union Army in the American Civil War , far from home. The mother and daughters face their first Christmas without him. When Marmee asks them to give their Christmas breakfast away to an impoverished family, the girls and their mother venture into town, laden with baskets, to feed

1648-463: A particular year group (up to 30 students). They usually work in year teams headed by a year leader, year head, or guidance teacher. Form tutors will provide parents with most of the information about their child's progress and any problems they might be experiencing. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, private tutoring, outside school, is common for students who need extra support in one or more subjects, particularly leading up to exams. In Ireland this

1751-407: A proper young lady. She is the artist of the family. Often coddled, because she is the youngest, Amy can behave in a vain and self-centered way, though she does still love her family. She has the middle name Curtis, and is the only March sister to use her full name, rather than a diminutive. Amy is chosen by her aunt to travel to Europe with her, instead of her sister, Jo. There, she matures and makes

1854-549: A result known as Bloom's 2 sigma problem . There can be an existing overlap between different types of tutoring with respect to the setting or location of tutoring, the size of tutor-learner pairings/groups, and the method of tutoring provided, for example, one-on-one peer tutoring can take place through online tutoring. Tutoring is typically private since it is exists independent of the system of public and private education, that is, one can be enrolled in public/private schooling and attend private tutoring services. Academic coaching

1957-427: A successfully completed adolescence". Beth, 13 when the story starts, is described as kind, gentle, sweet, shy, quiet, honest, and musical. She is the shyest March sister and the pianist of the family. Infused with quiet wisdom, she is the peacemaker of the family, and she gently scolds her sisters, when they argue. As her sisters grow up, they begin to leave home, but Beth has no desire to leave her house or family. She

2060-533: A syllabus. Academic coaches meet with the student regularly throughout the semester. Coaches work with students in all kinds of situations, not just those who are struggling academically. Academic coaching also serves to help students prepare for entrance exams to gain entry to schools or universities, and it is particularly popular in Asia. For example, in India, a majority of students, be it of any class or stream, visit

2163-515: A time of high immigration to the United States. Through the March sisters, women could relate and dream where they may not have before. "Both the passion Little Women has engendered in diverse readers and its ability to survive its era and transcend its genre point to a text of unusual permeability." At the time, young girls perceived that marriage was their end goal. After the publication of

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2266-521: A totally new genre. Elbert argues that within Little Women can be found the first vision of the " All-American girl " and that her various aspects are embodied in the differing March sisters. The book has been translated into numerous languages, and frequently adapted for stage and screen. In 1868, Alcott's publisher, Thomas Niles, recommended that she write a novel about girls that would have widespread appeal. Alcott resisted, preferring to publish

2369-412: A usual advertisement tactic of Hong Kong tutorial centers that has spread to South Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India where tutors achieve "celebrity-like status". In some cases, successful Southeast Asian tutors will even embrace the title of "tutor". Online private tutor matching platforms and learning platform offering online learning materials are other product offerings. In Cambodia, most tutoring

2472-516: Is a business that acts as an intermediary between people who are looking for tutors and tutors wishing to offer their services. The term tuition agency is an alternative term, used specifically in Singapore and Malaysia. Tutoring agencies are common in many countries including Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, the UAE, the U.K. and the U.S.A., although it is not regulated in most countries. In

2575-416: Is a person who provides assistance or tutelage to one or more people on certain subject areas or skills. The tutor spends a few hours on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to transfer their expertise on the topic or skill to the student (also called a tutee). Tutoring can take place in different settings. Formal education is first attested among the scribes of ancient Egypt but, in most fields, instruction

2678-551: Is a type of mentoring applied to academics. Coaching involves a collaborative approach. Coaches try to help students learn how they best learn and how to operate in an academic environment. Tutors help students learn the material in individual courses while coaches help students learn how to be successful in school. In college, that includes such topics as: study skills , time management, stress management, goal setting, organization, resource utilization, effective reading, note-taking, test-taking, communication, and understanding how to use

2781-623: Is also representative of Alcott's reverence for German culture . In 2003 Little Women was ranked number 18 in The Big Read , a survey of the British public by the BBC to determine the "Nation's Best-loved Novel" (not children's novel); it is fourth-highest among novels published in the U.S. on that list. Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association listed it as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children". In 2012 it

2884-419: Is an idealized one. For instance, Mr. March is portrayed as a hero of the American Civil War , a gainfully employed chaplain , and, presumably, a source of inspiration to the women of the family. He is absent for most of the novel. In contrast, Bronson Alcott was very present in his family's household, due in part to his inability to find steady work. While he espoused many of the educational principles touted by

2987-492: Is an important characteristic of the genre, which relies on dialogue and emotional responses, rather than action. The story is sometimes told in the form of a flashback. Historically, coming-of-age films usually centred on young boys, although coming-of-age films focusing on girls have become more common in the early 21st century, such as The Poker House (2008), Winter's Bone (2010), Hick (2011), Girlhood (2014), Mustang (2015), Inside Out (2015), The Diary of

3090-458: Is cripplingly shy, and Amy is materialistic. The neighbor boy, Laurie, the orphaned grandson of Mr. Laurence, becomes close friends with the sisters, particularly the tomboyish Jo. The girls keep busy, as the war goes on. Jo writes a novel that gets published but is frustrated to have to edit it down and can't comprehend the conflicting critical response. Meg is invited to spend two weeks with rich friends, where there are parties and cotillions for

3193-439: Is deferred, until her unexpected inheritance of her Aunt March's home, a year later. According to critic Barbara Sicherman , "The crucial first point is that the choice is hers, its quirkiness another sign of her much-prized individuality." They have two sons, Robert "Rob" Bhaer and Theodore "Ted" Bhaer. Jo also writes the first part of Little Women during the second portion of the novel. According to Elbert, "her narration signals

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3296-488: Is especially close to Jo: when Beth develops scarlet fever , after visiting the Hummels, Jo does most of the nursing and rarely leaves her side. Beth recovers from the acute disease, but her health is permanently weakened. As she grows, Beth begins to realize that her time with her loved ones is coming to an end. Finally, the family accepts that Beth will not live much longer. They make a special room for her, filled with all

3399-461: Is exploding; by comparison globally, shadow education is most extensive in Asia. This is partly due to the stratification of education systems, cultural factors, perceptions of shortcomings in regular school systems, and the combination of growing wealth and smaller family sizes. Therefore, the education sector has become a profitable industry which businesses have created different kinds of products and advertisement such as "the king/queen of tutorial",

3502-624: Is further characterized by a number of formal, topical, and thematic features. It focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood ( coming of age ), in which character change is important. The genre evolved from folk tales of young children exploring the world to find their fortune. Although the Bildungsroman arose in Germany, it has had extensive influence first in Europe and later throughout

3605-1413: Is known as grinds . In the British higher education system , a tutor is a general term for someone delivering tutorials, individually or in small groups. See tutorial system . A 2012 study by the Asian Development Bank and the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong pointed out that private tutoring can dominate the lives of young people and their families, maintain and exacerbate social inequalities, divert needed household income into an unregulated industry, and create inefficiencies in education systems. It can also undermine official statements about fee-free education and create threats to social cohesion. In South Korea , nearly 90% of elementary students receive some form of shadow education, usually in cram schools termed Hagwon . In Hong Kong, about 85% of senior secondary students do so. 60% of primary students in West Bengal , India, and 60% of secondary students in Kazakhstan receive private tutoring. Demand for tutoring in Asia

3708-488: Is limited substantial or conclusive information on in-home tutoring. Online tutoring is another way for a student to receive academic help, either scheduled or on-demand. Sessions are done through an application where a student and tutor can communicate. Common tools include chat, whiteboard, web conferencing, teleconferencing, online videos and other specialized applets which make it easier to convey information back and forth. Online tutoring has relatively recently emerged as

3811-714: Is mixed evidence showing the effectiveness of peer tutoring for those at the secondary level. One study suggests that phonologically based reading instruction for first-graders at risk for learning disability can be delivered by non-teachers. In the study, non-certified tutors gave students intensive one-to-one tutoring for 30 minutes, 4 days a week for one school year. The students outperformed untutored control students on measures of reading, spelling, and decoding; with effect sizes ranging from .42 to 1.24. The tutoring included instruction in phonological skills, letter-sound correspondence, explicit decoding, rime analysis, writing, spelling, and reading phonetically controlled text. Although

3914-404: Is more a brotherly love, rather than romantic love, the difference between which he was unable to understand, because he was "just a boy," as said by Alcott in the book. After Beth dies, Professor Bhaer woos Jo at her home, when "they decide to share life's burdens, just as they shared the load of bundles on their shopping expedition". She is 25 years old when she accepts his proposal. The marriage

4017-419: Is not always effective in raising academic achievement; and in some schools students commonly skip classes or sleep through lessons because they are tired after excessive external study. This means that the shadow system can make regular schooling less efficient. In many countries, individuals can become tutors without training. In some countries, including Cambodia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lao PDR, and Tajikistan,

4120-415: Is prominently featured". Adult elements of women's fiction in Little Women included "a change of heart necessary" for the female protagonist to evolve in the story. In the late 20th century, some scholars criticized the novel. Sarah Elbert, for instance, wrote that Little Women was the beginning of "a decline in the radical power of women's fiction", partly because women's fiction was being idealized with

4223-586: Is provided by teachers, whereas in Hong Kong, it is provided by individuals, small companies or large companies. In Mongolia , most tutoring is labor-intensive, while entrepreneurs in South Korea make use of computers and other forms of technology. A 2012 study by the Asian Development Bank and the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong recommended policymakers across

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4326-439: Is sent to live with Aunt March and replaces Jo as her companion and helper. Jo, who already had scarlet fever, tends to Beth. After many days of illness, the family doctor advises that Marmee be sent for, immediately. Beth recovers, but never fully regains her health and energy. While Brooke waits for Meg to come of age to marry, he joins the military and serves in the war. After he is wounded, he returns to find work, so he can buy

4429-412: Is the death of beloved Beth. Her "self-sacrifice is ultimately the greatest in the novel. She gives up her life, knowing that it has had only private, domestic meaning." Amy is the youngest sister and baby of the family; she's 12, when the story begins. Interested in art, she is described as a "regular snow-maiden," with curly golden hair and blue eyes, "pale and slender" and "always carrying herself" like

4532-405: Is wasting his life on pleasurable activities. Ultimately, Amy is shown to work very hard to gain what she wants and to make the most of her success, when she has it. For her books, Alcott was often inspired by familiar elements. The characters in Little Women are recognizably drawn from family members and friends. Her married sister Anna was Meg, the family beauty. Lizzie, Alcott's beloved sister,

4635-468: The Institute of Education Sciences , statistics show that for the 2006–07 years, only 22 percent of students received tutoring services out of the 60 percent of those whose parents reported receiving information about the services. Conversely, only 13 percent of students receive tutoring services out of the 43 percent whose parents reported not receiving information about the services. A tutoring agency

4738-617: The State Council of the People's Republic of China . The policy reclassified tutoring institutions in China as non-profit organizations, which solved the over-reliance of Chinese students on after-school tutoring classes, and reduced the additional financial burden on Chinese families. Chinese families spend 40 to 50 percent of their total domestic spending on tutoring. The double reduction policy's regulation of shadow education has improved

4841-417: The 20th century through focus and specialization in the training of tutors, application of tutoring, and evaluation of tutors. From the 20th century onwards, with the rapid spread of mainstream education, the demand for tutoring has also increased as a way to supplement formal education. In British and Irish secondary schools, form tutors are given the responsibilities of a form or class of students in

4944-459: The Garret". The characters within these short stories and poems, in addition to Alcott's own family and personal relationships, inspired the general concepts and bases for many of the characters in Little Women . The first volume of Little Women was published in 1868 by Roberts Brothers. The first edition included illustrations by Abigail May Alcott , the sister commonly called "May" who inspired

5047-538: The March family, he was loud and dictatorial. His lack of financial independence was a source of humiliation to his wife and daughters. The March family is portrayed as living in genteel penury, but the Alcott family, dependent on an improvident, impractical father, suffered real poverty and occasional hunger. In addition to her own childhood and that of her sisters, scholars who have examined the diaries of Louisa Alcott's mother, Abigail Alcott, have surmised that Little Women

5150-454: The March sisters: Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). The novel has been said to address three major themes: "domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine's individual identity." According to Sarah Elbert , Alcott created a new form of literature, one that took elements from romantic children's fiction and combined it with others from sentimental novels, resulting in

5253-571: The Professor is poor, the wedding must wait, while he establishes a good income by going out west to teach. A year goes by without much success; later, Aunt March dies and leaves her large estate, Plumfield, to Jo, who marries Friedrich and turns the house into a school. They have two sons of their own, and Amy and Laurie have a daughter. At apple-picking time, Marmee celebrates her 60th birthday at Plumfield, with her husband, her three surviving daughters, their husbands, and her five grandchildren. Meg,

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5356-610: The UK, after much discussion in the media, a limited company was set up in October 2013. The Tutors' Association was previously named The London Association Of Certified Financial Analysts. In Singapore, tutoring agencies, also known as tuition agencies, are not regulated by the Ministry of Education. In Singapore, parents and students have positive as well as negative comments. Tutoring centers (tuition centers) must be registered with

5459-522: The United States who wanted to assimilate into the middle-class culture. Coming-of-age story The plot points of coming-of-age stories are usually emotional changes within the character(s) in question. In literary criticism , coming-of-age novels and Bildungsroman are sometimes interchangeable, but the former is usually a wider genre. The Bildungsroman (from the German words Bildung , "education", alternatively "forming" and Roman , "novel")

5562-550: The United States, the tutoring market is fragmented. Some online tutoring marketplaces, however, have managed to aggregate a large number of private tutors on their platform and also tutoring data. For example, one such site has over 34,000 registered tutors in California and made public their tutoring hourly rate data. In the United Kingdom, the cost of tuition is dependent upon a variety of factors such as subject, level (Key Stages, GCSE or A-Level), tutor experience and whether

5665-517: The audiobook versions. Editions are shown in continuous print from many publishers, as hardback, paperback, audio, and e-book versions, from the 1980s to 2015. This split of the two volumes also shows at Goodreads, which refers to the books as the Little Women series, including Little Women , Good Wives , Little Men and Jo's Boys . G. K. Chesterton believed Alcott in Little Women , "anticipated realism by twenty or thirty years", and that Fritz's proposal to Jo, and her acceptance, "is one of

5768-419: The beginning of the book, is a strong and willful young woman, struggling to subdue her fiery temper and stubborn personality. Second oldest of the four sisters, Jo is masculine, the smartest, most creative one in the family; her father has referred to her as his "son Jo," and her best friend and neighbour, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, sometimes calls her "my dear fellow," while she, alone, calls him Teddy. Jo has

5871-714: The development of individual educational programs for students and accompanies the process of individualization and individual education at school, university, in additional education systems. Peer tutoring refers to the method of tutoring that involves members of the same peer group teaching or tutoring one another. The characteristics of a peer tutoring group/pairing vary across age, socioeconomic class, gender, ethnicity. It has been defined as "a class of practices and strategies that employs peers as one-on-one teachers to provide individualized instruction, practice, repetition, and clarification of concepts". Studies have found that peer tutoring provides academic benefits for learners across

5974-674: The effects diminished at the end of second grade, the tutored students continued to significantly outperform untutored students in decoding and spelling. Although certain types of tutoring arrangements can require a salary for the tutor, typically tutoring is free of cost and thus financially affordable for learners. The cost-effectiveness of tutoring can prove to be especially beneficial for learners from low-income backgrounds or resource-strapped regions. In contrast, paid tutoring arrangements can create or further highlight socioeconomic disparities between low-income, middle-income and high-income populations. A study found that access to private tutoring

6077-499: The effort to do well in his last year, with Jo's prompting. Amy is chosen over Jo to go on a European tour with her aunt. Beth's health is weak, due to complications from scarlet fever, and her spirits are down. While trying to uncover the reason for Beth's sadness, Jo realizes that Laurie has fallen in love. At first she believes it's with Beth, but soon senses it's with herself. Jo confides in Marmee, telling her that she loves Laurie like

6180-494: The familiar construct of domesticity". While Alcott had been commissioned to "write a story for girls", her primary heroine, Jo March, became a favorite of many different women, including educated women writers through the 20th century. The girl story became a "new publishing category with a domestic focus that paralleled boys' adventure stories". One reason the novel was so popular was that it appealed to different classes of women along with those of different national backgrounds, at

6283-552: The fictional Amy March. She "struggled" with her illustrative additions to her sister's book, but later improved her skills and found some success as an artist. The first printing of 2,000 copies sold out quickly, and the company had trouble keeping up with the demand for additional printings. They announced: "The great literary hit of the season is undoubtedly Miss Alcott's Little Women , the orders for which continue to flow in upon us to such an extent as to make it impossible to answer them with promptness." The last line of Chapter 23 in

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6386-434: The first volume states: "So the curtain falls upon Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. Whether it ever rises again, depends upon the reception given the first act of the domestic drama called Little Women." Alcott delivered the manuscript for the second volume on New Year's Day 1869, just three months after publication of part one. Versions in the late 20th and 21st centuries combine both Little Women and Good Wives into one book under

6489-642: The first volume, many girls wrote to Alcott asking her "who the little women marry". Sicherman said that the ending, which she personally characterizes as "unsatisfying", worked to "keep the story alive" as if the reader might find it ended differently upon different readings. Anne E. Boyd contends that "Alcott particularly battled the conventional marriage plot in writing Little Women ". Alcott did not have Jo accept Laurie's hand in marriage; rather, when she arranged for Jo to marry, she portrayed an unconventional man as her husband. In Sicherman's opinion, Alcott used Friedrich to "subvert adolescent romantic ideals" because he

6592-556: The girls to dance with boys and improve their social skills. Laurie is invited to one of the dances, and Meg's friends incorrectly think she is in love with him. Meg is more interested in John Brooke, Laurie's young tutor. Word comes that Mr. March is very ill with pneumonia and Marmee is called away to nurse him in Washington, DC . Mr. Laurence offers to accompany her, but she declines, knowing travel would be uncomfortable for

6695-429: The great American practitioners of the girls' novel and the family story". In the 1860s, gendered separation of children's fiction was a newer division in literature. This division signaled a beginning of polarization of gender roles as social constructs "as class stratification increased". Joy Kasson wrote, "Alcott chronicled the coming of age of young girls, their struggles with issues such as selfishness and generosity,

6798-404: The hungry children. When they return, they discover their wealthy, elderly neighbor, Mr. Laurence, has sent over a decadent surprise dinner, to make up for their breakfast. The two families become acquainted, following these acts of kindness. Meg and Jo must work to support the family: Meg tutors a nearby family of four children; Jo assists her aged great-aunt March, a wealthy widow living in

6901-402: The idea of marriage and romance, feeling that it would break up her family and separate her from the sisters whom she adores. While pursuing a literary career in New York City, she meets Friedrich Bhaer, a German professor. On her return home, Laurie proposes marriage to Jo, which she rejects, thus confirming her independence. Another reason for the rejection is that the love that Laurie has for Jo

7004-451: The important skills of public speaking for the assembly or courts ; in Plato 's works , Socrates provides similar services for free while criticizing the sophists for their presumed lack of concern for actual truth and understanding. In the case of the ancient Romans , the education of the patricians and wealthy plebeians was frequently provided by Greek slaves . Royal tutors ,

7107-428: The lasting results of Beth's scarlet fever slowly begin to kill her. Jo devotes her time to the care of her dying sister. Laurie encounters Amy in Europe, and he slowly falls in love with her, as he begins to see her in a new light. She is unimpressed by the aimless, idle, and forlorn attitude he has adopted, since being rejected by Jo, and she inspires him to find his purpose and do something worthwhile with his life. With

7210-595: The lesson takes place virtually or in person. If you are looking to receive online tutoring from a qualified UK teacher with a verified certificate it will cost between £30 & 40 per hour. It is also common in the UK to apply for tutoring sessions through your local school if you are struggling to help subsidise the cost through the National Tuition Programme. Research supports the literature that students who seek and receive tutoring services outperformed their counterparts. However, private tutoring

7313-468: The mainstream school system. Situations in which teachers provide extra private lessons for pupils for whom they are already responsible in the public system can lead to corruption, particularly when teachers deliberately teach less in their regular classes in order to promote the market for private lessons. When private tutoring is provided by well trained tutor however the effects can be dramatic, with pupils improving performance by two standard deviations,

7416-463: The nature of individual integrity, and, above all, the question of their place in the world around them." Girls related to the March sisters in Little Women , along with following the lead of their heroines, by assimilating aspects of the story into their own lives. After reading Little Women, some women felt the need to "acquire new and more public identities," however dependent on other factors, such as financial resources. While Little Women showed

7519-527: The news of Beth's death, they meet for consolation, and their romance grows. Amy's aunt will not allow Amy to return, unchaperoned, with Laurie and his grandfather, so, they marry, before returning home from Europe. Friedrich is in Massachusetts on business and visits the Marches, daily, for two weeks. On his last day, he proposes to Jo, and the two become engaged, as she realizes she loves him. Because

7622-471: The old man. Mr. Laurence, instead, sends John Brooke to do his business in Washington and help the Marches. While in Washington, Brooke confesses his love for Meg to her parents. They are pleased but consider Meg too young to marry, so, Brooke agrees to wait. While Marmee is in Washington, Beth contracts scarlet fever , after spending time with a poor family, where three children die. As a precaution, Amy

7725-532: The oldest sister, is 16, when the story starts. She is described as a beauty, and she manages the household, when her mother is absent. She has long brown hair and blue eyes and particularly beautiful hands, and she is seen as the prettiest one of the sisters. Meg fulfils expectations for women of the time; from the start, she is already a nearly perfect "little woman," in the eyes of the world. Before her marriage to John Brooke, while still living at home, she often lectures her younger sisters to ensure they grow to embody

7828-503: The original text annotated for the reader (explaining terms of 1868–69 that are less common now), the original text modernized and abridged, or the original text abridged. The British influence, giving Part 2 its own title, Good Wives , has the book still published in two volumes, with Good Wives beginning three years after Little Women ends, especially in the UK and Canada, but also with some US editions. Some editions listed under Little Women appear to include both parts, especially in

7931-569: The orphaned sons of his sister. For extra money, Jo writes salacious romance stories, anonymously, for sensational newspapers. Suspecting her secret, Friedrich mentions such writing is unprincipled and base. Jo is persuaded to give up that type of writing, as her time in New York comes to an end, unaware that Friedrich has fallen in love with her. When she returns to Massachusetts, Laurie proposes marriage, and she declines. Laurie travels to Europe with his grandfather, to escape his heartbreak. At home,

8034-545: The outset of the book and try to follow the good example of Bunyan's Christian. Throughout the novel, the main characters refer many times to The Pilgrim's Progress and liken the events in their own lives to the experiences of the pilgrims. Several chapter titles directly reference characters and places from The Pilgrim's Progress . In addition to drawing on her own life during the development of Little Women, Alcott also took influence from several of her earlier works including "The Sisters' Trial", "A Modern Cinderella", and "In

8137-524: The pattern of classroom teachers supplementing their incomes by tutoring students after school hours is more a necessity than a choice, as many teachers’ salaries hover close to the poverty line. In South Korea, the number of private tutors expanded roughly 7.1% annually on average from 2001 to 2006, and by 2009 the sector was the largest employer of graduates from the humanities and social sciences. Teachers who spend more time focusing on private lessons than regular classes can cause greater inefficiencies in

8240-404: The period in a young woman's life where childhood and elder childhood are "overlapping" with young womanhood. Each of the March sister heroines has a harrowing experience that alerts them and the reader that "childhood innocence" is of the past, and that "the inescapable woman problem" is all that remains. The March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy – and their mother, whom they call Marmee, live in

8343-518: The personal instructors of future rulers , have always enjoyed importance and prestige. In particular, the Grand Tutor ( 太傅 , tàifù ) was one of the three great lords of the royal court of the Zhou dynasty of ancient China. Similar positions remained in very high importance across East Asia into the modern era. By some accounting, methods of tutoring only began to become more structured after

8446-451: The potential drawbacks of online tutoring stems from the influx or sensory overload of information from different materials. "For example, material presented in multiple modalities run the risk of interrupting the learner from a coherent learning experience, of imposing a “split attention” effect (the mind cannot concentrate on two things simultaneously), or of overloading the learner's limited supply of cognitive resources." The tutor ensures

8549-404: The psychological and moral growth or transition of a protagonist from youth to adulthood. A variant in the 2020s is the "delayed-coming-of-age film, a kind of story that acknowledges the deferred nature of 21st-century adulthood", in which young adults may still be exploring short-term relationships, living situations, and jobs even into their late 20s and early 30s. Personal growth and change

8652-495: The quality of school curriculum during the Compulsory education period and relieved the inequality of educational resources caused by the economic gap. Some studies have estimated costs associated with "shadow education". In Pakistan , expenditures on tutoring per child averaged $ 3.40 a month in 2011. In Japan, families spent $ 12 billion in 2010 on private tutoring. In Georgia, household expenditures for private tutoring at

8755-521: The really human things in human literature". Gregory S. Jackson said that Alcott's use of realism belongs to the American Protestant pedagogical tradition, which includes a range of religious literary traditions with which Alcott was familiar. He has copies in his book of nineteenth-century images of devotional children's guides which provide background for the game of "pilgrims progress" that Alcott uses in her plot of Book One. Little Women

8858-642: The region take a closer look at how ‘shadow education’ affects family budgets, children's time, and national education systems. It suggested that in order to reduce the need for private lessons, improvements in mainstream schools should be made. Regulations are also needed to protect citizens. On 24 July 2021, the Double Reduction Policy got promulgated jointly by the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party and

8961-409: The regular lives of American middle-class girls, it also "legitimized" their dreams to do something different and allowed them to consider the possibilities. More young women started writing stories that had adventurous plots and "stories of individual achievement—traditionally coded male—challenged women's socialization into domesticity". Little Women also influenced contemporary European immigrants to

9064-623: The secondary school level was $ 48 million in 2011. In Hong Kong, the business of providing private tutoring to secondary schools reached $ 255 million in 2011. The estimated size of the private tuition industry in India was estimated to be worth around $ 70 billion in 2017. In South Korea, where the government has attempted to cool down the private tutoring market, shadow education costs have nonetheless continually grown, reaching $ 17.3 billion in 2010. Household expenditures on private tutoring are equivalent to about 80% of government expenditures on public education for primary and secondary students. In

9167-458: The student's formal school career." The term "shadow" has four components to it: firstly, the existence of and need for tutoring is produced by the existence of the formal education system; secondly, the formal education system is the mainstream system and thus tutoring is its shadow; thirdly, the focus remains on mainstream education in schools; fourthly, tutoring is largely informal and unstructured as compared to formal or mainstream education. As

9270-432: The subject areas of "reading, mathematics, science, and social studies" Peer tutoring has also been found to be an effective teaching method in enhancing the reading comprehension skills of students, especially that of students with a low academic performance at the secondary level in schools. Additionally, peer tutoring has been proven especially useful for those with learning disabilities at the elementary level, while there

9373-471: The things she loves best: her kittens, her piano, Father's books, Amy's sketches, and her beloved dolls. She is never idle; she knits and sews things for the children who pass by on their way to and from school. But eventually, she puts down her sewing needle, saying it grew "heavy." Beth's final sickness has a strong effect on her sisters, especially Jo, who resolves to live her life with more consideration and care for everyone. The main loss during Little Women

9476-415: The title Little Women , with the latter marked as Part 2 (chapters 24 to 47). Each chapter is numbered and has a title as well. Part 2, Chapter 24 opens with: "In order that we may start afresh and go to Meg's wedding with free minds, it will be well to begin with a little gossip about the Marches." Editions published in the 21st century may be the original text unaltered, the original text with illustrations,

9579-497: The title of "little women". Meg is employed as a governess for the Kings, a wealthy local family. Because of their father's family's social standing, Meg makes her debut into high society, but she is lectured by her friend and neighbor, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence, for behaving like a snob. Meg marries John Brooke, Laurie's tutor. They have twins, Margaret "Daisy" Brooke and John Laurence "Demi" Brooke. The sequel, Little Men, mentions

9682-469: The world. Thomas Carlyle had translated Goethe's Wilhelm Meister novels into English, and after their publication in 1824/1825, many British authors wrote novels inspired by it. Many variations of the Bildungsroman exist, such as the Künstlerroman ("artist novel"), which focuses on the self-growth of an artist. In film, coming-of-age is a genre of teen films. Coming-of-age films focus on

9785-451: Was also heavily inspired by Abigail Alcott's own early life. Originally, Alcott did not want to publish Little Women , claiming she found it boring, and wasn't sure how to write girls as she knew few beyond her sisters. However, encouraged by her editor Thomas Niles, she wrote it within 10 weeks. Also, Little Women has several textual and structural references to John Bunyan's novel The Pilgrim's Progress . Jo and her sisters read it at

9888-437: Was an immediate commercial and critical success, and readers were eager for more about the characters. Alcott quickly completed a second volume (titled Good Wives in the United Kingdom, though the name originated with the publisher and not Alcott). It was also met with success. The two volumes were issued in 1880 as a single novel titled Little Women . Alcott subsequently wrote two sequels to her popular work, both also featuring

9991-546: Was less financially affordable for low-income families, who thus benefited less from private tutoring as compared to high-income populations, who had the resources to profit from private tutoring. Tutoring has also emerged as a supplement to public and private schooling in many countries. The supplementary nature of tutoring is a feature in the domain of what some scholars have termed "shadow education". Shadow education has been defined as "a set of educational activities that occur outside formal schooling and are designed to enhance

10094-451: Was much older and seemingly unsuited for Jo. However, the character was partially based upon older men Alcott was attracted to, such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson , or admired, such as German writers Charles Follen and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . In particular, Alcott had considered Goethe her "chief idol" since the day Emerson had introduced her to Goethe and handed her a copy of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Bhaer

10197-583: Was ranked number 47 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal , a monthly with primarily US audience. Little Women has been one of the most widely read novels, noted by Stern from a 1927 report in The New York Times and cited in Little Women and the Feminist Imagination: Criticism, Controversy, Personal Essays . Ruth MacDonald argued that "Louisa May Alcott stands as one of

10300-405: Was shown to several girls who agreed it was "splendid." Alcott wrote, "they are the best critics, so, I should definitely be satisfied." She wrote Little Women "in record time for money", but the book's immediate success surprised both her and her publisher. According to literary critic Sarah Elbert, when using the term "little women" Alcott was drawing on its Dickensian meaning; it represented

10403-499: Was the model for Beth. Like Beth, Lizzie was quiet and retiring. Like Beth as well, she died tragically at age twenty-three from the lingering effects of scarlet fever. May, Alcott's strong-willed sister, was portrayed as Amy, whose pretentious affectations cause her occasional downfalls. Alcott portrayed herself as Jo. Alcott readily corresponded with readers who addressed her as "Miss March" or "Jo", and she did not correct them. However, Alcott's portrayal, even if inspired by her family,

10506-548: Was traditionally handled on a personal basis, with most skills and professions long handed down within families or via apprenticeship until the modern era. In classical antiquity , the lower classes could pay for instruction in group settings like ludi but the upper classes preferred personalized home tutoring. In ancient China , some aristocratic tutors like Confucius and Mencius attracted so many students that they established influential philosophies . In ancient Greece , some sophists established lucrative careers teaching

10609-411: Was well received upon first publication. According to 21st-century critic Barbara Sicherman there was, during the 19th century, a "scarcity of models for nontraditional womanhood", which led more women to look toward "literature for self-authorization. This is especially true during adolescence." Little Women became "the paradigmatic text for young women of the era and one in which family literary culture

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