In the end, you get what you pay for. One good thing about being raised in Eastern Europe is the education you get early on. I was enrolled into a “music school”, an after-regular-school institution where I learned music theory, accompaniment, harmony, history, etc. I got out in seventh grade with a “degree” in musical theory. US and European analogues cost, as you mentioned, in the thousands, while my parents felt comfortable paying the $10 a month, even out of their $120/month paychecks.

holy.. yeah, I need to teach an ivy league preschool too.

hmm, I paid nothing for DS to learn to read, and having a 4 year old reading at a 2nd grade level isn’t even offered by any school I have read about, I guess I got what I paid for, paid nothing, got no paper to prove it, yet the kid can read……wonder which is more important, the paper saying he is a smart kid, or a kid who loves to read and learn……

These numbers isn’t all that impressive to me. Not when you consider starting off with infant child care, you’re already shelling out $10,400-12,500 a year for child care — where I lived, $220/week was the price of quality care. If that is your starting point, then maybe it isn’t that much of a stretch to rationalize contining those payments throughout school if you feel that it is worth it.

In retrospect, I realise that I spent $6,000 a year on child care in the preschool years. And that was the price of child care at $117/week. Would I spend $36,000 on preschool - no, but I did feel that I got more than I paid for at her child development center.