During the first three months, I offered free chess lessons for Romanian children. It was a personal experiment to assess my ability to transition from teaching in English to teaching in Romanian, and from interacting with children in Canada to engaging with children in Romania. My first twenty students were mostly the children of my Romanian friends. Although I did not ask for payment, all the parents repeatedly insisted on compensating me.
The reward for me, however, was something far more valuable: I learned from these children at least as much as they learned from me.
A few months later, thanks to recommendations from parents, I began to be approached by other parents I didn’t know, interested in chess lessons. I immediately faced the dilemma of setting an appropriate price for these lessons and determining the payment frequency. Not being very familiar with the Romanian market, I conducted an extensive survey among parent friends I was already in contact with, to compare prices for various educational activities for children in Romania. That’s when I discovered just how cautious and skeptical Romanians can be.
Trust and Advance Payments
The common denominator of the advice I received was: “Take their money upfront, there are too many scammers!” I quickly realized that Romanians are as cautious about scams as beekeepers are about their hives. Being new to the service transaction field in Romania, I established a flexible payment system: four lessons paid in advance, allowing parents to remember when they need to renew the payment. The plan was to start with this method and adjust if any problems arose.
Over the past ten months, since I began charging for classes with Romanian children, I have had exactly zero scams from the approximately sixty parents making monthly payments. It’s remarkable, and I feel lucky to have such a dependable client demographic. There is a natural selection among parents: those who understand the benefits of chess and education for their children don’t scam. Few businesses have customers who filter themselves so effectively.
This reminds me of the famous book market in Baghdad, where books are displayed outdoors, unsupervised, because, as they say, the reader doesn’t steal, and the thief doesn’t read. For some time now, I no longer check whether the monthly payment from students has been made. I trust parents to honor their financial commitments—a stress less for me.
The Paradox of Free Education
There is also a sadder aspect. During my travels, I have seen countless children without access to education. Their futures seem sealed, with almost no chance of success in the long lives ahead of them. I never wanted my lessons to depend on the financial situation of the parents. On multiple occasions, I offered free classes to children of parents in less favorable circumstances.
Regrettably, the success rate was extremely low. The parents did not want the lessons. Paradoxically, I am more likely to find parents willing to pay than parents who want free classes. I want to teach chess to Romanian children from more modest families, but I have no way of reaching them. Historically, with few exceptions, money has brought education, and education has brought money, which in turn opened new opportunities from generation to generation. Parents filter themselves.