Comment by omgomgomgomg | Hacker News Reader

Comment by omgomgomgomg | Hacker News Reader

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I am having this issue now, the kid is getting into phase where we need to make a decision about languages and schools etc.

Currently, we are in Spain, the salaries we have are very good for here, but the economy is the worst in the EU by far, docs and lawyers earn barely more than 2300 Euro net after graduating, I really like Spain, but perhaps the kids chances for the future would be severly inhibited going to school here. We are solid upper middle class here.

The other option would be Switzerland, but we would be lower middle class or worse there. Switzerland does have what I think is the best education system, with some caveats, its very competitive and if youre slow, youll be delegated into a low performer segment which will prevent you from attending faculty(you can qualify for this later). University cost is cheap, actually, even at the renomated ETH Zurich.

The 3rd option would be Colombia, there we would be top tier class and the kid would have a privileged upbringing and education. The country is a bit dangerous and a private university costs more than the ETH. Jobs are scarce in Colombia, many people with masters and doctorates can be without a job for months or years and the pay is worse than Spain. Many dentists and such leave for Europe only to work in a fish fabric or some other no skill job.

4th option is UK, I only like London there, but it is definitelly too dear and we would get the worst bang for the buck, so to say. I consider the UK education as fantastic, if you make it to university.

I have lived and worked in all the places and I wonder if 15 to 20 years from now most jobs will be remote, or at least accessible to most.

Any feedback and input from you people would be greatly appreciated.

I do not want to make the kid exceptional, unconditional love and best possible upbringing is my goal.

Exceptional kids often come at a very heavy price.

The formal education system at the university level in any of those countries, to me, seems like the exact opposite type of education this article so highly touts. Not only that, but those universities are typically attended much later in life at a time when most children could have already experienced exceptional growth. I'm having a hard time seeing the parallel between your thought / decision-making process and the article.

Yes, I define the long term goal to be attending university and take it backwards from there. I would like to avoid the kid moving nations at age 18 to attend a university abroad.

The parallel is that I am aiming at something below excellence and how the world is changing.I think the paths of the past are npt necessarily as rigid any more, some things have changed and fully copying others success paths does not guarantee results, there should be some flexibility I think.

Looking back at the way its changed since I finished education, things are changing slow, only Covid made an artificial push forcing companies to start accepting remote intverviews from a to z and remote work.

Have you considered France? According to your examples, it would be like a sort of middle point between Spain and Switzerland. You'd have a well-functioning welfare state, good education, free and open universities (the students of top-tier schools even receive a salary if they manage to get in). The only thing that I dislike is that Paris proper is quite stressing, due to crazy traffic, nervous people, etc. But there are very nice accessible neighborhoods just a few minutes off the center.

Thanks a lot for this suggestion, this is actually worth considering, I speak the language(courtesy of the Swiss education system) and had some job offers from France before, they looked interesting, just a bit too remote of life for my taste.

I am just wondering if Paris and the suburbs would be as expensive as London, I will compare the relevant costs.

> I speak the language(courtesy of the Swiss education system)

That probably removes the biggest barrier.

> I am just wondering if Paris and the suburbs would be as expensive as London, I will compare the relevant costs.

Why go to Paris? Southern France is much friendlier and the weather is great.

Most universities in the UK are mediocre. Significantly worse than universities in Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden. France and Germany are very good for engineering in particular.

>The clever men at Oxford, know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them know one half as much, as intelligent Mr. Toad.

I'm in the UK, and not concerned about our children's educational/career prospects. As well as being ridiculously expensive, London isn't great for schools unless you pay for private or carefully live right next to one of the best ones. But there are plenty of nice places outside London and there are areas that still have grammar schools if your children get in. We're not in a grammar school area, but still feel like with some support from us, our children should still be able to get into very good universities.

Housing is more expensive than Europe generally though and universities are more expensive, but you get massively more support generally in UK universities from my impression (my sister is doing a degree in Austria and the contrast is striking; I've worked quite a bit with academics at various European universities so my impression also comes from talking to them).

But you need to be happy too with wherever you are. Unhappy parents will probably have a bigger impact than anything else.

My only advice is to note that a lot of this hangs on how you and your spouse enjoy the new place, not your kid. Attending a better school or belonging to a more prestigious segment of society doesn’t matter as much as you being happy, relaxed and available.

Why not live in Spain, find a very good school there, maybe hire a few tutors and then let your child to study at whatever uni they want?

Choosing a school is important, but not as important as choosing a uni imo.

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