Everyone murmured appreciatively. When Piper became director at Glory Be, she’d inherited an already thriving preschool. Maybe it wasn’t the choicest preschool in town, the one with the miles-long waiting list that required an entrance exam, but the parents who brought their children there were fashionable and professional and educated. Yet after Piper started, she rebranded it into Silver Swans and turned it into the only school that mattered.

“Now, if it had been last year, this would be the part of the speech where I’d talk about our programs,” Piper went on. “Our art installations. Our playground renovation. Our impressive list of famous guests who will teach and inspire your kids, everything from cooking to botany. And while all of that is still in place, the world is a little different, isn’t it? In the past year, a lot of us have had a wake-up call. A lot of us have learned valuable lessons about what matters . . . and what’s superficial.” She cleared her throat. “And maybe some of you—more than some—felt so uncertain that things would bounce back. I just want to say we hear you. We see you. It’s been hard for us at Silver Swans, too. And I just want to say, thank you for making the investment in us again this year. I know that for some, it might be more of a hardship, and maybe it doesn’t seem as important. But education is important, and we will try our hardest and do our best and always be a place of support and caring.”

A few people murmured. The economic disaster—or Grand Recession, as it was called, a market bubble that burst for a variety of reasons and set off a chain reaction of sell-offs and layoffs—was still on everyone’s minds. And Silver Swans cost upwards of $16,000 a year for baby care, $20,000 for full-day preschool services, and even more for kindergarten. This year, the school had instated some new ways to pay—through credit cards, or through monthly withdrawals from a bank account—but to some, it was more of a struggle. Most knew they were still privileged—first-world problems and all that, to worry about a pricey preschool instead of putting food on the table. But for some parents who thought of where their children went to school as a status symbol, the struggle represented something much bigger.