We’ve written a great deal about how parents are seeking out, and embracing, alternatives to traditional public schools. But what about teachers? It seems they, too, are questioning the traditional public school model – and its bureaucracy. And they are doing something about it.
Kerry McDonald writes:
Rather than abandoning their passion for teaching, some educators are discovering that they can do what they love and avoid the bureaucracy and stress of a conventional classroom by starting their own microschools.
Microschools are modern twists on the quaint, one‐room schoolhouse model, where small, multi‐age groups of students learn together in more intimate educational settings, such as private homes, with individualized attention from adult educators and facilitators. Interest in microschools accelerated over the past year, as school shutdowns led parents to consider home‐based “pandemic pods” to help their children learn in small, safe groups. Some teachers were recruited to lead pods, while others set out to create their own learning communities and microschool models. These entrepreneurial educators are finding that they have many resources available to them to launch their own innovative schools.
Educational entrepreneurship without the hassle and nonsense of a public school bureaucracy. And it’s accelerating thanks to the pandemic:
…the pandemic has created the necessary conditions to spark education entrepreneurship and change, as more parents demand more learning choices for their children. “The way we’ve always structured education is not the way all students learn and thrive,” says [Tamara] Becker, who encourages other educators to launch their own microschools.
“Take the leap,” she urges. “We need people to take the risk, to think outside the box and to walk outside of their comfort zone because if we don’t we’re going to continue to fail a large percentage of our student population. Students need to be ignited and engaged and to love what it is they do every day when they come to school,” says Becker.
More of this, please.
