Business lessons from homeschooling

Last Friday, my family´s homeschooling project concluded. It was the safest option during the days of the pandemic, but it meant much more than a simple measure to 'protect' our children from the virus.

We wanted it to last throughout elementary school, but we decided to change course.

We assumed that going back to school was convenient for the children and perhaps for us too. To add a bit more excitement, we also decided to move to a different city. But that's another story.

Homeschooling was an option many families chose due to Covid.

For my wife and me, it was also a choice because our children were about to start kindergarten, and we were on the verge of enrolling them in school when the world changed overnight in March 2020. At that moment, we knew it was the time to make a family project come true: homeschooling (If you don't believe me, search for me in some episode of Shark Tank in 2015).

During these 3 years, we saw an old dream of ours as a couple come true. Despite the skeptical looks and comments, we never doubted our decision. Nobody tried to convince us otherwise, but nobody questioned why we insisted on an idea that seems to come from a tale in some ultra-conservative community in the center of the United States.

Regarding the reasons we liked homeschooling, there were always two perspectives: strengthening the family bond in early childhood (up to 6 years old) and not rushing the learning processes that most schools force to justify their methods and fees. It's a somewhat complex issue to explain in a couple of paragraphs, but it is known that children are not mature enough to formalize reading and writing processes until they are past 6 years old.

When 8 years ago, I decided to deeply study homeschooling, I quickly realized that in Mexico, there was no infrastructure or necessary support network to do it correctly and prudently. While in the United States, there are safe parks with public libraries all around, in Mexico, neither one nor the other happens.

There were also no properly aligned programs with the necessary adherence to curriculum guidelines. In those years, the idea of creating a platform for families like us seemed like a decision that required a lot of money or perhaps a pandemic that would modify work schemes and demystify the obligation of traditional schooling.

In 2023, our children are returning to school, and we are very excited.

They will interact with other boys and girls for the first time. They will have schedules like everyone else, with no privileges. If they don't do what they are supposed to, there will be consequences. If they are not kind to other children or their teachers, the invisible hand of 'socialization' will put them in their place. They need it, however, the 3 years of personalized education they received allowed us to get to know them a little better, to understand their strengths and areas for improvement in academic matters. Soon we will see if the 3 years of homeschooling will leave them with a lifelong trauma or, on the contrary, if the unilateral decision of their parents will have created such a gap in their sense of belonging to the community that all they will want is to strengthen bonds in ways I couldn't even explain.

The 3 years of homeschooling, beyond the educational context of my children, left me with some personal (and business) lessons that I share with you.

1. No idea, no matter how wonderful or terrible it may seem, is truly wonderful or terrible if you don't put it into action. In my initial enthusiasm for homeschooling, I took my idea to the extreme consequences. There, I realized that there wasn't much room for maneuvering, and it was best to stop the intention until better times came. The idea was buried until a black swan like the pandemic unexpectedly resurrected it. The fact that my children have been homeschooled goes beyond my obsession. I believe, without fanaticism or bias, that these 3 years will stay with them as something distinctive. I hope not as a label.

2. Eliminate frictions. When people think of homeschooling, they assume that parents take care of everything day by day. In most cases, that's how it happens. If we had chosen that path, I believe our homeschooling journey would have lasted only 3 months instead of 3 years. If my wife or I had taken on the role of the teacher, perhaps it would have been more economical, but at the same time, it would have generated enormous friction between us and the project itself. From the beginning, we decided to hire a teacher to handle the day-to-day activities. That figure eliminated almost all the friction that the project could have encountered. In the short term, we often took on the responsibility of operating or doing some activities for the sake of pleasure or to save money. In the short term, it may sound reasonable, but in the long run, it burdened the routine with stressors that put what truly matters at risk.

3. Don't reinvent the wheel. In my first phase of homeschooling enthusiasm, I focused on creating a complete curriculum to execute the project on a scale that clearly couldn't be achieved in a short time. I tried, but it was very frustrating to progress so slowly because doing it as I envisioned it (for the entire elementary school) would have required hiring dozens of educators to invent something they wouldn't even have known how to do. In the second phase, it was as simple as buying an existing program and tailoring it to our needs. It was straightforward and bore fruit.

Last Friday marked the end of an era in my family's life. It was as enjoyable as the best vacation. Although we are certain that we will be subject to some questioning in the future from the very children who will become unbearable teenagers, we also have the feeling of having put our home school into practice.

Unfortunately, homeschooling cannot become a public policy in Mexico due to various circumstances (infrastructure, inequality, educational materials). However, I believe that the model of personalized education can help identify developmental delays or outstanding abilities in students in an objective manner due to the closeness with the student. Schools cannot make these types of diagnoses because they are subject to the routine of the average.

¡Vamos Carajo!

Fran Michavila