The Education Programs I’d Spend Money on Outside of School

I have worked in the education industry for 10 years, spoken at 100+ schools and interviewed 500+ high achieving students from inventors to Harvard admits to 9 year olds solving calculus problems.

With my own first addition to the family on the way, it’s got me thinking - where will I be spending my education budget outside of school?

So here’s my rough plan.

Kumon Maths Program from Kindergarten

I worked for Kumon for 4 years and in that time, I interviewed about 300+ high achieving Kumon kids. Most of them did not love doing Kumon but almost all of them were thankful they stuck with it. The reason they’re thankful for it is they can see other classmates struggling, needing tutoring or trying to avoid maths altogether.?

The plain truth is that maths takes time to learn and most students simply aren’t doing enough.

You can find other programs that suit your child, Kumon is just the one I’m most familiar with. And don’t let parents tell you ‘let kids be kids’. They usually have way too much trust in school alone and will be looking for maths tutors in high school.

At Home Science/Engineering Kits

I have interviewed many at-home inventors and engineers. Students building robots in their own time, coding in their own time, turning ideas into action! At-home science or engineering kits have come so far that this one is definitely worth a try. I don’t have any particular kit in mind but Kiwi Co or Crunch Labs look like fun!

Coding / artificial intelligence basics

So many Australian students are leaving high school without ever being taught computer science basics. That’s particularly crazy when you consider how computer science is likely to impact so many different industries in the future. Students don’t need to be a coding whiz but they at least need to know the basics. There’s a huge number of programs out there but I’d start this from primary school - a lot of teenagers don’t have the patience for it!

Mentoring

When we think of additional support for a student, we almost always think ‘tutoring’. This is often in the pursuit of subject confidence or higher exam scores. An area that I think is massively undervalued is a great mentor. So often I meet students who say they want to study medicine for example and it’s clear that they are either way off the academic mark for medicine or are just saying it because it makes their parents proud. A mentor can help effectively guide a student in which subjects could be best-fit, what extracurriculars they should consider, what uni courses they should look into.

Unfortunately, the careers department at most schools are stretched - most students won’t have a serious chat about their future with someone other than their parents until Year 11 so a mentor to help them think big and try new things would be a major plus. Personally, I’d be looking into TKS (a great program based out of Canada with a virtual intake as well) or, perhaps I’m bias, but Crimson Education has some awesome mentors getting students to take on impressive projects and discover new-found directions.

An Independent International Trip

A lot of parents will take their child on an international holiday or perhaps pay for a school tour. But of course, the experience for real character growth is always limited when you’re surrounded people from home. If you can get your child involved in an international summer school program or tour of some kind, it can really challenge them to mature and better understand the world around them. I was lucky enough to go on a 2-week program in the US in Year 10 and still have friends from it today who are all around the world.

Paid-For Career Experiences

Right now, students are basing their most important education decisions (what subjects they take in Year 11/12 or what unis/courses they apply to) on paper thin experience. Students will tell you with 100% certainty they want to study something as niche as forensic science based on what exactly? A half hour guest speaker? A TV show they watched? Or they’ll simply be unaware of the huge array of jobs or entrepreneurial pathways that are out there.

Yes, most states still have work experience in Year 10 but having taken on work experience students before, I know a lot are left doing coffee runs or filing for two weeks - hardly a good experience! Paid-for experiences at least gives you some reassurance that your child will have some structure and key takeaways rather than the coffee runs. If they come out of the program with more certainty on their future - whether that be ruling something in or out - it’s a win.

And that’s it - for now at least.

Let me know if you have any questions as I’m happy to help!