1. The Beginning

It is mid-July. We are sitting on the floor of a mostly empty apartment (hopefully soon to be school), surrounded by boxes filled with classroom supplies and books. It’s Virginia-July hot and we are waiting for the air conditioner to start up so we can think about something besides the heat. I’ve cried twice already today and may cry more later. Still, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else than sitting here, on this floor, with these women, planning for a homeschool co-operative scheduled to start in less than two months.

So… how did we get here?

In April, the lovely Montessori community school many of our children attended last year held a meeting for the families of rising fourth graders. They were open and honest with us that they had a full enrollment for the coming school year, and while they were dedicated to our children, they were concerned about the number of students in the small space and worried that they would not be able to provide an adequate experience for our fourth graders.

This had been my daughter’s first year at this little school and she had thrived. As a former public-school teacher I had never imagined not having my own children attend public schools, but as my daughters’ grew it became clear they each had different educational needs. My oldest is thriving in the local public school, but the youngest needed something else. I was heartbroken to learn that the lovely year she had just completed would not be repeated for her fourth grade year.

We all seemed to take a bit to process this information. What does this mean? Will our fourth graders be OK? If they do not have a place to go, could we create our own place for them? What would that look like? Could we even do that? Where would we house it? Would other families be interested? Who would teach? What would we teach? Who is on board with the planning? Who wants to be on board?

The questions were endless - and mounted each day. Many of us took long-walks - dreaming and thinking. If we did this - really, truly did this - what would our dream school look like? What would we create?

In our early stages I reached out to a friend who had started an Acton Academy with her husband. While we were interested in the Acton model, it was clear we did not have enough time or funding to start one ourselves. My friend took time to answer all my questions but continued to say “this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve never cried so much in my life. I do not recommend doing this although I don’t regret it.” This shook me, because she is not a person I’ve ever heard say that anything was challenging. She isn’t flustered by much. What does it mean if starting a school threw her off this much?

I thought about her comments for days (still do). But despite how hard the road in front of us might be, we kept coming back to the question - what are the options if we don’t see this through?