The Cost of a Good Education

My older daughter Booster finished first grade this year, and I have already spent more on her education than I spent on getting an undergraduate degree. It's shocking for me, a frugal midwesterner, to say this, to know that, in fact, it is true.

I'm a teacher, well, a Montessori guide, as some like to call what we do, and since I took the Montessori training, I dreamed, I expected, that my children would receive a Montessori education until at least fifth or sixth grade, hopefully longer. I take early childhood education very, very seriously, telling myself and my husband that we will invest in our kids while they are young and then trust that they will have the skills necessary to make a college education happen for themselves. I do not stress about how to pay for their college education and have spent more time worrying about the color to paint my daughter's bedroom than looking into college savings plans.

So when we decided that I would take a couple of years off for daughter number two, leaving behind a good job with tuition remission benefits, we decided to keep Booster in a Montessori program, a very reasonably priced program with a great reputation and beautiful campus. At the end of two years, I am not unhappy with this decision. I feel that she has benefited tremendously from the time she has spent at her school.

Fortunately, I have accepted a teaching position for next fall at a school with an intriguing program that begins at 3 months of age. Unfortunately, the school does not offer an elementary program. It might some day, but that day is a long, long time away. (I did receive an offer from a school with an elementary program this year. Unfortunately, while I was waiting for my interview, an assistant was screaming at the primary kids to shut up in the room next door. There were some other things about the school that did not mesh with my pedagogical views but I would have been more amenable to being flexible had it not been for the screaming assistant.)

So that now leaves us with a big question to answer. How much should we invest in Booster's education given the fact that we make a humble living doing what we both do? We live in an area where the schools are considered to be good ones. We just have a strong preference for the Montessori curriculum in a general sense, and now, Booster's teacher in a specific sense.

We mull over the pros and cons every few days trying to decide which course to take. Right now we have decided to take a break from the near constant discussion of this topic (while I consider to look for sign from the divine that will point us in the right direction).