Every student's case mentioned made it seem like the goal of tutoring is for the student to acquire elite status and prestige by going to highly selective schools through the planning by their neurotic parents. The material learned was less relevant.

I want to teach my students how to follow their passions, how to strive for the life they want, rather than for hollow symbols of success.

It seems like hollow symbols of success are what the parents and institutions have agreed to create though. The number of schools and slots for students has apparently not changed much but the number of students across the globe who are competing for slots in a few, elite western schools has gone up enormously. That drives the value of the degree up through scarcity which seems to be what people want for their children, is ways to be more elite than their peers.

It's probably not surprising then that bribery happens. The schools aren't really selling an education anymore and the parents aren't really looking for one either.