A while back, I opined on my daughter wrapping up her first grade year, voicing some concerns that I had at the time. In the years since, we’ve moved cities and therefore schools for my daughter, and she’s done well for herself in her new setting. Indeed, my daughter started fourth grade today, pleasing me no small amount; I’m glad to have helped her to get this far, and to have helped her get where she is in fairly good shape and with availed-upon access to a number of enrichment activities (theatre programs, day-camps, sleep-away camp, and a couple of weekend excursions) that I hope will stand her in good stead as she moves forward, not only into the new school year just begun, but in her life beyond and outside school.

That I am looking outside the schoolhouse walls might come as a bit of a surprise coming from me, given my own long formal studies and the time I spent at the front of several classrooms. Clearly, I am invested in formal education, and clearly, I believe in its essential value, irrespective of concerns of marketability and future earnings. (Clearly.) And, indeed, my higher education led me to my wife and, in time, to my beloved daughter; the best parts of my life, I owe to having studied where and when and what I studied. I cannot in good conscience deny that there is value in taking the time to learn and think and study and become that I had.

But I also acknowledge that my own path to arrive where I am has not been ideal; I am and remain tens of thousands of dollars in debt because of the choices I have made, and while I accept the justice of the price I pay for having what I have, I chafe no small amount at seeing others have more for paying less (the more so because so many who have benefited from luck fail to acknowledge that they have, in fact, been lucky; no amount of work will allow forward motion where there is no gap in the wall through which to squeeze). And there are other prices I pay to be the person I am than monetary, upon which I will not elaborate here but which I am sure the more astute among my readers–yes, I am referring to you, and you know it–can intuit. There are other paths than that I took, and I think they are likely to be better for more people than not.

I think as much is true for my daughter.

Admittedly, she is only going into fourth grade today. There’s time, I hope, for her to figure things out, and if it is the case that she proceeds as she has been, I’m reasonably certain I’m doing at least decently to help her along that path, making sure the pack she carries is full of good and useful things, even as I know it’s probably heavier than she ought to have to carry. If it isn’t, I can hope she knows 1) that I love her, and 2) that I’m ready to help her along, however I can.

What else is there, really?

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