中央社 – 2013年12月11日 下午10:59
（中央社台北11日電）從西班牙伊比沙島（Ibiza）奢華別墅的陽台望出去就是日落美景，手上拿著一杯好酒，享受這片刻寧靜的人可不是銀行家，而是超級家教，時薪上看嚇死人的1500英鎊（約7萬台幣）。
英國「每日郵報」（Daily Mail）報導，35歲的藍戴爾（Davina Langdale）只是新一代的「超級家教」之一。受到競爭愈益激烈及中產階級和富豪父母望子成龍望女成鳳心態作祟，名牌家教一天就能進帳數百英鎊，外加優渥獎金。有些人甚至炙手可熱到2年前就被預定下來。
這些人的學生包括父母企盼將子女送進頂尖公立學校的國中生，還有想擠進一流大學但入學考試卻搞不定的高中生。
據說好萊塢女星葛妮絲派特羅和搖滾歌手老公馬丁（Chris Martin）開出年薪6萬2000英鎊，要為孩子請私人家教，教日文、網球和下西洋棋。
不過這些超級家教對這個價碼並不感到驚訝，他們很多人原本只是把家教當作一時玩票的權宜之計，後來發現超好賺。動物及藝術學畢業生藍戴爾5年前開始當家教，因為當時她在寫小說。
現在她每週家教時數最少17小時，學校放假期間還可能增加到30小時。她說：「從來沒有會令人感到乏味的時候。過去家教給人的形象就像是『簡愛』小說中在佈滿灰塵的小閣樓授課，但現在情況可是大不相同。」
家教仲介公司Bright Young Things共同創辦人韋布斯特（Woody Webster）說：「你每小時付水管工人多少錢，70英鎊？那為何不考慮每小時付家教100英鎊？」
這家公司其中1名「明星」家教、29歲的皮特（Phineas Pett）是住在倫敦的法文與德文畢業生，他從25、6歲開始當家教，供自己讀完戲劇學院，現在則靠當家教維生，足跡遍佈歐洲、紐約及遠東地區。
皮特說：「我從不需要自我宣傳。如果你夠強，就能靠名聲接案。我曾在一個早上就有3個教法文的工作機會找上門，因為有1名媽媽在餐會上提到我。」
他提到：「學生家長也不全然都是有錢人，不少人是一般中產階級家庭，認為請家教是一種投資。」
甚至有家教時薪收取超過1000英鎊，開出這等價碼、33歲的麥克雷恩（Mark MacLaine）說：「我知道這很荒謬，但市場就是如此。」（譯者：中央社蔡佳伶）
Meet the private tutors who earn up to £1,500 an HOUR from posh parents to turn their little darlings into geniuses... with perks from yacht trips to exotic holidays
- Tutors paid big money to prepare children of the wealthy for exams
- The so called 'super tutors' are flown around the world to provide lessons
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Super tutor Davina Langdale is paid up to £1,500 an hour
Watching the sunset from the panoramic terrace of a luxury villa in Ibiza, glass of fine wine in hand, Davina Langdale allowed herself a moment of quiet satisfaction.
And little wonder: ahead of her lay a convivial dinner, laid on by her hosts, before lunch the following day at one of the island’s finer restaurants.
You might commonly associate such a lifestyle with a City banker, yet 35-year-old Davina is a tutor, flown out to Ibiza by a group of British families to hothouse their ten-year-old children.
Nor is this a one-off: since she started tutoring five years ago, Davina has become every bit as accustomed to working on the deck of a yacht moored off the coast of Monaco as she has to teaching in the immaculate drawing rooms of London’s more expensive postcodes.
Davina is just one of a new breed of ‘supertutors’ — an elite group of 20 and 30-something graduates who, fuelled by the desperate competition for school places and the anxieties of both middle-class and wealthy parents, can earn hundreds of pounds a day and enjoy extraordinary perks. Some are so sought after they are booked up to two years in advance.
Among their clients are junior school children with parents desperate to get them into top public schools, and teenagers struggling with their GCSEs and A-levels seeking a place at a top university.
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Last month, a spotlight was shone into this world when it emerged that a 20-year-old student at Cambridge University was offering a private tutor £48,000 for a 16-week assignment to help him re-take the first year of his Natural Sciences course.
Phineas Pett is a private tutor in a variety of subjects and has taught the children of the well-heeled all over the world
The contract equates to £100 an hour — fees usually commanded only by top lawyers and private doctors.
Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her rock star husband Chris Martin are said to have advertised for a private tutor for their children Moses and Apple.
They reportedly offered £62,000 a year for someone with a knowledge of Japanese, tennis and chess.
Yet none of this is much of a surprise to the new breed of tutors, many of whom embarked on private teaching work as a stop-gap only to find it turning into a lucrative career. Davina, a zoology and art school graduate, started tutoring five years ago while she wrote a novel.
Today she tutors a minimum of 17 hours a week, which can rise to 30 in the school holidays. ‘There is never a dull moment,’ she says. ‘The old-fashioned image of tutoring tends to be Jane Eyre-style governesses in a dusty attic. But it’s very far from that these days.
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