I believe that truth, kindness, and learning go hand-in-hand, and that kids are compact, unique packages of potential. Teaching and modeling thoughtful empathy and allowing children to practice making wise decisions sets them up to use knowledge not just powerfully, but rightly and well. Wisdom always leads a person to more knowledge, but even the highest knowledge without wisdom leads to disaster.

Before they came to me, many of my students experienced anxiety about going to school, which made it difficult for them to learn. Our microschool is in its second year, but I continue to be surprised when tears well up in a student's eyes because a break or holiday is coming up. They regularly ask if they might be allowed to come to class anyway. Now they are no longer in survival mode, but are learning and flourishing, and that makes my heart sing!

The microschool is growing! I would use the money to help acquire a new classroom for the older students, to train new teachers in Holistic-Classical methods, and to purchase a trailer to pull behind our big passenger van as we take students on an epic trip across the USA next year.