First of all, let me share my biases with you right upfront:
- I am not a parent
- I have 5 university degrees
- I have invested over $150,000 in my formal and informal education
- I have read over 1,000 business books and over 5,000 academic and journal articles
With all that, I also can tell you that parents like to over-spend on their children’s education, just like people prefer to spend thousands on diamonds when artificial diamonds cost a fraction of the price and THE NAKED EYE CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE!
A recent blog post on the costs of Australian Education brings this point home…
I see it all the time – with a $29 product to help students get the best grades with the least amount of effort – people won’t make the investment even if it’s only $29… But they spend TENS OF THOUSANDS for tuition, accommodation, etc.
Go figure…
I know what this does to parents. I have them as business clients. They have to earn $2 for every $1 they spend on their kids’ education. That means for each child, that’s +/- a million bucks/child. Frankly put, that’s mostly money flushed down the toilet. But of course you can’t tell a parent “junior'” is not the next Einstein…
So there you have it – the raw, unedited reality. Education is like any other investment – it deserves a proper Return On Investment (ROI) calculation.
Bad link for “costs of Australian Education”
This has been fixed – thanks for the heads up!