Figure | Thirty only
Text | Miki porridge
If the economy is not good, everyone will be more sensitive to money.
Especially for middle-class families, to open up and reduce expenditure, take stock of household expenditure, every month the mortgage and car loan are the big head, but it is impossible to sell houses and cars to cut the budget, and the bank does not agree.
There is another large amount of expenditure, which is the cost of children's education. Hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year, when there is a lot of money, no one cares where it is spent, for the rich people is nothing more than a day's stock up and down board;
But when 15 stocks and 13 greens, everyone can't help but start to wonder, the monthly education costs of 20,000 or 30,000, language and mathematics are not as good as public, English still has to be tutored, then what did my money buy back?
Once the account is calculated, the question of "worthless" will arise.
01
Recently, a parent sent me a screenshot saying that he was like a leek rising in the education circle.
What is it that makes him have such a profound sense of life? Share it for you to see, it is the "2021 Global International Education Cost Ranking" calculated by this International Schools Database.
In this screenshot, the 10 most expensive cities in the world are listed for tuition fees. Among them, Beijing and Shanghai surpassed Zurich in Switzerland to grab the 2nd and 3rd positions, while Shenzhen beat London and Geneva to win the 6th place.
Just when a group of uncles and aunts were arguing about whether English should be removed from the Chinese college entrance examination, the tuition fees of parents going north had been aligned with the world's richest American empire.
Note that 38,000 knives is only the average tuition. It does not include accommodation, meals, miscellaneous fees, shuttle fees, tutoring classes, interest classes, as well as various camp activities in winter and summer vacations, participation in various competitions, etc.
wonder... How much does that all add up to?
A mother revealed to me that she insists on engaging in real whole-person education, so the sum of a child's tuition and miscellaneous training fees is not less than 1.2 million a year. As far as I know, her family's chicken baby has a total of two...
At that time, I was shocked by the numbers (before it was basically 500,000 caps), it turned out that the biggest cost of children in international schools was not tuition at all, but various classes.
Why? Isn't spending hundreds of thousands of tuition fees every year not enough to raise a child whose wisdom and cultivation coexist and whose talents have no dead ends?
I'm afraid... Really not.
02
Why not? Let's start by looking at the reasons why parents choose international schools.
Some people are trying to escape the educational atmosphere of public servants and protect children's curiosity;
Some people are trying to make children have a more international educational environment, cultivate civic awareness and empathy;
There are also people who agree with the international curriculum and feel that the cultivation of critical thinking is more important than brushing up on problems...
In the final analysis, we all hope that children's education can be decided by themselves.
So when you hear that 90% of international schools say they offer "whole person education" —
The so-called whole-person education, as the name suggests, is the all-round development of morality, intellect and physical beauty, from spiritual armament to body, both ... And... And also... That kind of education.
There's a feeling of being hit, isn't that the perfect educational model I'm looking for? No brushing, no chicken blood, no anxiety, meat and vegetarian can be freely matched.
Do you know how far this freedom can go?
Recently, several parents have come to me and asked if XX School can provide customized education. For example, if a child is studying in a primary school abroad before, the English level is significantly higher than that of the students in the class, can he follow the senior grade to take English lessons?
The answer is yes.
In order to reflect the value of tuition fees, some schools provide layered teaching in English, free tutoring for after-school subjects, and accompanying homework to last up to 8:30... Almost solved the problem of parents about late pick-ups, extracurricular classes, open sports and reading time... All kinds of educational troubles.
Not to mention the service of education, a class of Chinese and foreign teachers is also equipped with a life teacher to take care of the safety of children in school. The teacher is rarely louder, and is kinder to the child than the mother.
Naturally, parents do not have to provide services for teachers, and they stare at groups, fill out forms, punch cards, solitaire, report interest classes, and make fine time planning every day.
Private parents are not too anxious, the school's "whole person education" never talks to you about further education, and even some high-profile (from the bones of their bones feel that they are international) schools do not post the famous school offers received by students.
Because in their eyes, the offer is naked utilitarianism, not at all worthy of the lofty style of their own international education.
Parents who read international schools can enjoy lying flat, the school has no scores and no comparison, almost everyone takes a general A at the end of the term, even if it is not all A, when the parents meet and talk, the teacher will seize the opportunity to give the child a big compliment.
Parents are very happy to hear it, think that this money is too worth it? Children who were originally exposed at home can eat and sleep well at school, run freely (this demand cannot be done by the public), and have been excavated into the other side of genius.
Therefore, international schools are hundreds of thousands a year, and what they want is this feeling of being a parent.
No one spends money to find the feeling of Haidian parents in Shunyi, and wants the chicken baby to choose the public, free is not more fragrant?
03
In the beginning, parents who chose international schools thought it felt good to be free.
But when you read it, you will find that this is only a privilege that existed before the third grade. As long as education is on a track, whether public or private, it is impossible not to roll up as long as there is competition (except for a very small number of those who are educated at home).
Some time ago, a little girl who read an international school complained, saying that when she was in elementary school, she saw a large stack of reference books for her cousin's college entrance examination preparation, and her heart was deeply frightened, and when she went home, she cried and shouted that she wanted to go to an international school to avoid this crazy inner volume and high-pressure competition.
Her parents were reasonable, probably mainly because the family was relatively rich, and soon sent her to an international school to the current level of high school.
She said that she had a little life experience and wanted to share it with me.
After reading international schools, I know that the college entrance examination is a very volume, but the international school is also a volume, but it is another kind of volume: in addition to the daily life in the school, to prepare for the IELTS, TOEFL, ssat, to participate in various worldwide competitions, from mathematics, physics to biology...
Just the exam is enough, and the students around me are all still skilled.
In the first lecture of the new literature unit, the teacher just asked a warm-up question, and the class bully stood up to answer, took out three pages of thesis reference, and was full of critical thinking.
Can this be done purely by on-campus learning?
Before I said in "Two years spent 2 million, he still gave up the international school" said that IB teachers only care about education regardless of the assignment of exercises and homework, and want to read this course can only explore on their own.
But it's inefficient! You can only rely on expensive extracurricular tutoring and speed overtaking.
Before Haidian parents spent more than 40,000 yuan to make up classes for children in the summer vacation, everyone felt expensive, that is, they did not know what the efficiency of IB make-up classes was broken money, more than 60,000 single subjects, or the lowest price after discounts from acquaintances.
There are also TOEFL scores and IELTS breakthroughs, which can consume more than 100,000 in more than half a month.
Don't want to make up lessons? Yes. But looking around the children TOEFL has been 110+, you will think that the money has been spent halfway up the mountain, how can you give up now?
This is harsher than the gaokao. The college entrance examination, at most, is to compete with the domestic 10 million people, Shen Teng, is to consider how to achieve transcendence in the competition with the Chinese and Indian cows.
Originally, I went to an international school to fight against the internal roll, but the parents who lay flat were wrapped up and ran up.
Then everyone sadly saw that at the end of this road, not only to get the score of the exam, but also to the requirements of artistic beauty and spirit.
04
One day, I was waiting in the school hall and watching a group of first-grade boys chasing and playing.
At first, as lively as all bear babies of this age, suddenly one of them got tired of running, sat on the piano bench in the hall and began to play the blue Danube.
His height has just stepped on the pedal. At that time, I realized what kind of road I had chosen.
The richness of the curriculum in international schools is a bait, and most of them can only provide one opportunity for experience.
For example, swimming, baseball, equestrianism, golf, put in physical education class, can not be every day; according to the class of large classes, a class of more than 20 people queuing up to experience, can only taste the stop.
If you want to improve, whether you are interested in strengthening your body or planning to apply for college, you need to invest money again. Ask one-on-one coaches, find one-on-one coaching, but also take exams and run all over the world to play games.
Without grades, there is no sense of accomplishment, and without grades, you cannot do a good job of transferring money to ability.
So someone asked me before, is it okay to study in an international school with an annual income of 200,000? I persuaded for half a day.
Because although you want to lie flat, you don't want chicken blood, just want the child to be happy. But they did not know that the price of this educational freedom was too high.
When the family is spent, you can't watch the children dig sand and play with the mud, as long as they are anxious, they need money to fill the voids left in comprehensive education.
The more money you put in, the higher the expectations for your child... Then you will be troubled by the question of whether the education value is worth it.
Therefore, what kind of stocking, happy education, that is the privilege of the tycoons who have family trusts.
05
The question of education is not a question of whether it is worth it or not, but a question of willingness or unwillingness. Once you consider whether it is worth it, it proves that you feel the pressure of the economy.
Even if you go to an international school, you are mixed with a high-income family circle. Don't you see people who spend 50,000 or 60,000 a month all over the Internet shouting poverty? Yishui's ordinary house, ordinary car, ordinary bilingual school, and only dare to have a child.
Everyone thinks this is a bit too exaggerated, and the people who spend 60,000 yuan per month are still poor?
But pinch your fingers, the mortgage car loan is more than 20,000 a month, the tuition fee is more than 20,000 a month, the hard cost is more than 40,000 before going out, and the remaining more than 10,000 pieces have to take care of a family of five to eat and drink Lasa...
Although the heating season is over, the Russian-Ukrainian war has pushed up the price of oil, the most expensive 98 has exceeded 10 pieces, and the number of display cards at gas stations is not enough, and the price list can only be written by hand.
There are also water and electricity bills and property fees... It turns out that the middle class is a frog in warm water, the annual income of 2 million can only be carefully calculated, this year even rely on 10 million financial management to pay the tuition of the baby high-end middle class, have transferred the children back to the public school...
He felt that the economy was not good, and money was more important. Education investment is placed behind, so that children have a guarantee for the future.
But some people are hesitating, the world is changeable, who can predict tomorrow? Keeping money is not necessarily guaranteed. As soon as the Russo-Ukrainian War broke out, even Switzerland, a neutral country that claimed to remain unchanged, began to harvest the Russian tycoons mercilessly.
It is better to spend money on investment in education, so that children have real skills, which is the guarantee for the future.
However, what should I do after the baby does not come out of the chicken and the money is spent?
……
No one knows the answer, and money with a limit can only be a gamble.
In the end, all we can do is probably work hard to make money and get enough chips for this big gamble for the children.