Everyone loves convenience. For last-minute items, I’ll visit the Dollar General up the street rather than the Walmart 20 minutes away. If I am choosing between two dinner recipes, I’ll select the one I already have ingredients for in the cupboard instead of making a trip to the grocery store, even if it is less than 10 minutes from home. Convenience is efficient, comfortable, and familiar. However, convenience often takes a back seat when we’re talking about life in the unconventional learning space, be it as a parent, a founder, or both. It is frequently, and unapologetically, inconvenient.
I had the opportunity to interview Melissa Hannigan, author of the book Inconvenient Parenting: Activate Your Child’s God-Given Traits, to discuss her book, her homeschooling journey, and the experience of homeschooling in the midst of personal loss. As I read Melissa’s book and learned more about the twelve qualities she outlines (drawn from Thomas Armstrong’s book Awakening Genius in the Classroom), I was initially challenged. Where in my own homeschooling journey, and within the homeschool program I lead, had I leaned into convenience and potentially missed opportunities to create more meaningful and lasting experiences?
Yet, as I further reflected on these twelve qualities, something surprising emerged. Rather than feeling like an indictment, I realized that I had seen these characteristics repeatedly in unconventional learning environments across the country. These qualities are not aspirational ideals; they are hallmarks of thriving homeschool programs, microschools, learning pods, and other nontraditional models of education.
During National School Choice Week, a time dedicated to celebrating educational freedom and the diversity of learning options available to families, these innovative environments and the visionaries behind them are featured in events throughout the country. The twelve attributes Melissa describes are beautifully woven into the tapestry of countless programs led by creative, resilient innovators who are changing the educational landscape of this nation.
- Wisdom: When children engage in self-directed and experiential learning that fosters critical thinking and resilience, when learners have the freedom to explore their interests in collaboration with others, and when they engage in everyday problem-solving activities, wisdom begins to grow. Unconventional learning spaces are uniquely suited for this development. They provide room for students to make decisions, experience failure, reflect, and grow, cultivating the ability to make sound choices with consideration for others.
- Wonder: If there is one quality educational entrepreneurs instinctively nurture, it is wonder. Our environments are rich with opportunities for students to explore, discover, and experience wonder! Whether found in science, as students discover the magnificence of the human body or the beauty and complexity of nature, or in literature, as they are catapulted into unknown lands with fantastical creatures, or when found diving into the history of foreign lands and people groups, or even while engaging in math and discovering the order and interconnectedness of numbers, wonder is all around! At the heart of what we do is a desire to unlock curiosity and awe, igniting wonder and a lifelong love of learning.
- Vitality: Vitality is one of those qualities that is often caught, not taught. Enthusiasm for life and learning is contagious, and children naturally reflect this! Melissa writes, “children are sometimes labeled ‘too much’ or ‘a lot’ because of their eagerness to take in everything, all the time, sometimes at a breakneck pace that’s hard to keep up with.” However, in the unconventional learning space, founders embody Melissa’s advice to “see it as a gift to cultivate… we help them thrive and learn how to harness that energy for a good purpose.” When excitement and learning collide, things can get messy, loud, and inconvenient, but it is precisely in this space that children thrive! Walk into almost any unconventional learning space, and you’ll see vitality on full display!
- Sensitivity: Sensitivity is often nurtured through service, collaboration, and shared responsibility, and I previously wrote about building a culture of service in your community. Children also learn sensitivity and build emotional intelligence as they engage in collaborative learning and problem-solving, attributes typically found in unconventional learning spaces. I have yet to meet a founder who does not emphasize the importance of developing the whole child, with emotional well-being viewed as a true measure of success.
- Flexibility: Flexibility is perhaps the defining characteristic of unconventional education. In our community, we jokingly refer to the “11th” Commandment: the flexible will not be broken. When things don’t go according to plan, as they inevitably do, we improvise, adapt, and move forward. The COVID crisis exemplified this, as many families embraced homeschooling, created learning pods, and set the stage for the birth of microschools and other unconventional learning spaces. The reality is that flexibility is often forged during inconvenient events and seasons and produces the fruits of resilience, progress, and growth, not just in adults, but in our children.
- Curiosity: Some say curiosity killed the cat; however, I believe curiosity is the igniting fire that creates lifelong passion! When children reach the stage where they ask literally every question under the sun, it may feel very inconvenient to venture down those rabbit trails, especially when there is a schedule. However, unconventional learning spaces have learned to transform curiosity into a catalyst for deeper learning. By welcoming questions and curious minds ready for exploration, these spaces cultivate a deeper joy and love of learning, and their environments are rich with discovery and growth.
- Creativity: The creatives are the ones who go off the beaten path; who form the complex beats of music that they march to; who weave stories together in unusual and unique tapestries. Creativity defines both the founders and learners within unconventional education. Our programs are creatively crafted to meet the needs of our learners, and we unleash the power for them to express life and learning in authentic and unique ways. While creativity may appear messy or inefficient in traditional settings, in unconventional spaces, it is recognized as essential.
- Imagination: Alongside curiosity and creativity is imagination and the freedom to dream, envision, and explore ideas without limitation. Founders in the unconventional learning space create programs and utilize curriculum in ways that spark the imagination of our learners. In these spaces, no idea is considered too outlandish, impractical, or unrealistic. Here, every thought and inspiration is given room to be pursued, and in these environments, children flourish.
- Inventiveness: From the blending of imagination, creativity, curiosity, and wonder flows inventiveness. While STEM/STEAM and nature-based programs often highlight this trait, inventiveness extends far beyond any single model. In fact, perceiving a need and responding with innovative solutions is what birthed many unconventional learning spaces. This same spirit is being passed on to the next generation of learners, giving students the freedom and room to cultivate inventiveness, and in the process equipping them with persistence, problem-solving skills, and self-confidence.
- Playfulness: Play is most often connected to children, but the reality is that play benefits everyone, and many unconventional learning spaces regularly incorporate play. Outdoor programs and forest schools are typically centered around play, as are other models such as Montessori, Charlotte Mason, and Waldorf programs. Playfulness encourages brain development, promoting exploration, curiosity, creative thinking, memory, and problem-solving skills. Physical play can promote large muscle development, balance, and coordination, as well as fine motor skills. Playfulness brings fun into the learning equation, and anecdotal accounts abound of students eager to participate in these unconventional learning environments because of how play is infused into these settings.
- Humor: The saying “Laughter does a heart good like medicine” is true! Humor plays a vital role in bringing fun into any learning environment, and it can bring moments of relief in the middle of stress. The founders I have encountered over the years have consistently pointed to humor as not only the means for getting through trying days, but as a quality they intentionally incorporate into their programs. For our children, humor promotes emotional well-being, and the resulting laughter lightens almost every situation. As founders, humor can help ground us, strengthen our relationships, and foster lasting connections.
- Joy: Joy and happiness are what many founders intentionally cultivate in their learning environments through celebration, encouragement, and meaningful relationships. It is part of the emotional well-being equation that many of us strive for. Joyful learners are motivated, confident, and engaged, and families who experience this joy often return year after year. By creating environments filled with joy, founders are producing emotionally safe, nurturing spaces where students are known, valued, and thriving.
Incorporating all twelve qualities into a learning program is rarely convenient. Unexpected detours and unplanned moments are often the very ingredients that allow these traits to develop. Yet when room is given for them, the resulting spaces are capable of unlocking unlimited potential in students.
If you’ve not read Kerry McDonald’s book, Joyful Learning: How to Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling, I highly recommend it. In it, she shares the experiences of founders who have created such learning environments. Through the stories of founders who embraced inconvenience in pursuit of meaningful education, she illustrates what is possible when learning is freed from rigid constraints. Inconvenience, when embraced with purpose, can produce magnificent results.
