The Priced, and the Priceless

Dinner at a restaurant, a baseball game, a day at the rodeo, a video game — material things come and go; they have a price.

But with education and tutoring — knowledge is forever; it is priceless. What you can take with you from a good teacher or tutor you can use forever, as is captured in the proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Good tutoring is worth the investment.

Compare the prices of other services:

Piano lessons can run $30 to $150 for an hour. The Parents Music Guide agrees with this. And on Answers.com someone makes the good point that (read carefully!) “In my opinion, paying $50 for 45 minutes of high standard tuition is much better than paying $25 for lessons that are next to useless.” This applies to tutoring as well.

Guitar lessons are a little cheaper, at $20 to $45 per hour. (Or more, I’d imagine!)

Horseback riding lessons are usually $25 to $60 per hour, or more.

Voice lessons can be $30 to $100 per hour, or more. Costhelper.com agrees.

Dance lessons cost $45 to $120 per hour, or more.

Personal trainers charge on average $60-$70 per hour.

In a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, “The ABCs on cutting tutoring costs: Studying the options can result in high marks for the money saved” (Mon 09/07/2009 Houston Chronicle, Section B, Page 6, 3 STAR R.O. Edition), Candice Choi (of Associated Press) writes:

THE arithmetic of hiring a tutor can keep you up at night. At $100 an hour, once a week, for the next several months or more, what are the costs?

Even as you scale back spending in the downturn, you’re probably not willing to compromise on your children’s education.
…
One way to cut costs is to team up with other families. If you’re using a tutoring company, the firm will generally do the grouping for you. At Kaplan Test Prep, for example, small-group tutoring of three kindergarten through eighth-grade students costs about $45 to $55 per session. That’s compared to about $60 to $75 for a one-on-one session.

Copyright © 2009 The Houston Chronicle

The best deal for your money — the best deal, period — is Gold Academy.