Sunday, May 13, 2012

"The best value is the one - that gives you the results that you are looking for..."

Whenever I am in my car - I always listen to "intelligent radio" or "smart programming" from my iTunes library. I listen in on what the current trends are in the world - either socially, technologically, or intellectually.

One day - I was listening to a business consultant talk moderate a discussion on prices in the market for a particular product/service. It seems pretty evident that to many of us - the most expensive price should always be the best price. That is entirely not the case 100% of the time.

A long time ago - a person very, very close to my family had consulted with an attorney over a pretty difficult situation. This attorney was the best in his class and was revered by everyone in the industry. His consultation fee was above what any person in my family could ever imagine since many of them are white collar professionals who draw a respectable salary each and every month. When the attorney was finished with the case, the family member went to the bank and moved the money that they had saved for the last ten years to pay him for his services. His response in helping her win his case was, "this is the last case that I will argue before I retire - I am happy to do this for free."

Many parents that I talk to are good parents - they look to do the very best for their children and sometimes put themselves in awkward financial situations in hopes that their child will benefit from the programs/services that they have endured for weeks/months. The sad thing is - not every program that is available to parents has a viable outcome and as a result, the parents end up with the same issues that they had prior to receiving any type of remediation. It is a great waste of time/money/ and energy to involve your student that may hinder their educational and social development during a time that is so important.

Whenever you are looking at a specific program to help your child - make sure that you have done the research needed to support the investment. When it comes to education - there is no simple solution in helping remedy any one problem that a student has. The key to helping your child is to focus on long-term progress - not a promise that all of the problems that your child once had will all go away in the matter of weeks. As with most things in life - long term changes occur incrementally, and not overnight.


No comments:

Post a Comment