It seems "investment psychology" made be a global concept. Here a FB friend from Malaysia writes:
"When it comes to education, educated parents are not price sensitive because they see education as an investment, not an expenditure.
The more I learn about business and finance the more informed I become about education. Quality is not scalable. Education is not scalable. Parents with an Investor Mindset look for quality and reap the rewards in the future. Parents with a Consumer Mindset look at cost.
One of the best decisions I've made in my profession is to shift my target audience away from the general mindset and cater to parents with a business (not proprietary) and investor mindset."
Speak on, sister! Yes, we in America have discovered the same thing about our homeschoolers. For the past two years (amazing, wonderful, couldn't do it the co-op without her) CJ has arranged for the homeschooling liaison from Campbell University to come and give a free seminar to all the parents who wished to hear about homeschooling transcripts, admissions process in general and to get FREE onsite applications to this wonderful school. How many people were able beating down the doors to get the information which is vital to the success of their homeschooled child's chance into higher education? Well, 1 person a year it turns out.
Fast forward to this year- Mikeal Davis, ever the entrepreneur and business man at our co-op, decides to hold the same concept- onsite admissions, homeschooling transcript talk, William & Mary admission's officer available to speak with privately- Only this time, it's $40 a head. It is also all day verses the 3 hours we had for the Campbell University consultant. Droves of people sign up! A bunch of parents are coming to this now. Quite a few people said, "Wow, $40. That's a little steep", and it kept them away, but it has not stopped many others from taking their place.
Here's what another mom said today from the Homeschoolin-in hamptonroads yahoo group-
"We've taken advantage of (the William and Mary Gift education program) for the last year (my son is 6 years) and they are simply wonderful. I could not recommend them enough. At first I thought they were too expensive, but after seeing what they do in them, I think it's worth every penny."
So yes, education is an investment, and people who are serious about education can't consider not putting their money where their philosophy is. Plato articulated these ideals. He saw two kinds of value- instrumental and intrinsic. An instrumental value is worth having as a means towards getting something else that is good (e.g., a radio is instrumentally good in order to hear music). An intrinsically valuable thing is worth having for itself, not as a means to something else. But it's wrapping both these concepts into one package where the golden coin of marketing lies. If someone perceives the value of their payment as both necessary for the future and enhancing their common worth as a person, well now we've come full circle to the statement above about W&M gifted program. Now price is no option.
I've been apart of 4 co-ops in my kid's homeschooling life. Two were true, "swap co-operatives" where it was free, or almost no cost, and everyone traded weeks for teaching, and two have been private tutor co-ops. No free co-op I've ever been apart of, no matter how much I wanted it around, lasted more than 2 years in any form (we tried three different arrangements of this one science co-op but it couldn't hold together), but my private tutor class co-ops have been around for 8 years strong.
So did that get together for fun science Mondays fail? Did your free trip to the aquarium fail to illicit any responses? Or worse, you got takers but no one showed up? Try charging for the opportunity. I find that you don't have go extremes- like charging more than something would be "retail", but free, as much as I tried to convince myself the experience was still valuable to others, has never proven to be a motivating force. Even charging $2 for the art museum tour, and then donating the money to the museum got 10 times the amount of takers then the previous free tour of the same exhibit! So take the advice of two continental homeschoolers, and know that what you know is valuable. Charge a little something and others will know it's valuable too.
Disclaimer and a dose of hard reality : Obviously, in economically depressed areas, charging for events is less likely than ever to get people out, but the point is, not charging anything is not going entice people to come either. I've set up free art classes in Hampton, and the classes were super small- 2 kids at best, & no one ever came with any consistency. Often, no one came that week. So bottom line: what is free worth?
