The Truth Behind the Education Arms Race

Parents think they are "investing in the future," but in reality, they are just using money to buy painkillers for their anxiety.

This is a classic prisoner's dilemma: if you don't enroll in classes, others do, and you feel anxious; if you enroll, others enroll more, and you still feel anxious. In the end, everyone stands up to watch the show, but no one sees it more clearly.

Research has shown that this kind of over-investment falls into a vicious cycle of "expectation gap—anxiety—over-investment—expectation gap."

What is true educational investment? It is the things that cost nothing: an afternoon of companionship, a sincere conversation, an hour of focused play.

But these do not generate bills, so you won't feel they are "worth money."

This is the greatest paradox of modern education: the most valuable things are precisely the ones that are free.