The True Cost of Education

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By Amy Nathan

August 20, 2007

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Summer ends this week, when both my kids pack their backpacks and I pack their lunches and they climb into the car for the mile drive first to the high school, then around the corner to the junior high.

It’s the time of year they dread yet prepare for with new clothes and supplies. When they mope and stomp but scour their schedules and burn up the phone lines and cyberspace comparing classes and teachers and schedules with their friends.

For my kids, the cost of the first day of school is the end of the wiles of summer.

For me, the true cost of education is:

High School registration and fees…$325.

Junior High yearbook…$20.

New backpacks…$60.

Gym Uniforms…$30.

Pens, pencils, notebooks…$30.

Texas Instrument Calculator…$80.

Locker paraphernalia and decor…$20.

New sneakers, men’s size 13…$85.

New sneakers, girls size 4…$35.00

Money for lunch out with friends on the first half-day of seventh grade…$10.

Haircuts…$40.

Emergency money tucked into backpacks…$10.00

My kids ~~out of the house and confined~~ well-supervised and expertly-educated 6 1/2 hours per day, five days per week until June 2008…

Priceless.

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Amy Nathan lives and writes near Chicago where she is mom to a teenage son, tween daughter and three big dogs. In addition to her venerable career with The Imperfect Parent, Amy's writing has been published in The Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post and in regional parenting magazines nationwide. She also blogs at Chicago Moms Blog. When she's not folding laundry or driving someone somewhere, she can be found wandering around the world wide web.

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