Why Traditional Schools Fail Some Kids and How Micro Schools Fill the Gap

What if there was a way to personalized learning that actually works? Benita Gordon, an education strategist and micro school pioneer, reveals how innovative schooling models can transform your child's success and happiness.

This episode dives into the world of micro schools—what they are, how they differ from traditional and homeschool settings, and why they might be the best fit for your child. Benita shares her journey from public school teacher to founder of a micro school, offering concrete examples of how personalized, project-based, and trauma-informed education creates engaged, motivated students. You'll discover how micro schools leverage the principles of small class sizes, flexible schedules, and tailored curricula to meet diverse learning needs.

Perfect for curious parents, educators exploring new models, or community leaders advocating for change, this episode unlocks the potential of micro schools to revolutionize learning. Join us and learn how you can be part of the movement creating more inclusive, customized, and effective education options—because every child deserves a space to thrive.

In a broader context, this episode emphasizes the critical need for educational choice in our current landscape. Whether your child is disengaged, needs a flexible schedule, or has specific learning challenges, micro schools can offer a viable, scalable solution. With actionable tips for parents and advocates, Benita empowers listeners to seek alternatives that truly serve the child’s best interests—not just conformity or standardized metrics.

Benita Gordon is an innovative education strategist, founder of Global Education Concierge, and a leader in the micro school movement. Her decades of experience in public education and community-driven school models fuel her mission to expand access to personalized learning.

If you're ready to rethink education and discover the future of schooling tailored for every child, this episode is essential listening. Empower yourself with practical insights and inspiration to make a difference today.

Transcript

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Okay, Okay. Thank you all again for joining the Falling for Learning podcast. In this episode today, we have a special guest. It is Benita Gordon. She is an innovative education strategist, a micro school developer, and the founder of Global Education Concierge. She has her podcast, the Education Concierge podcast. And today she's going to tell us about micro schools and what they can do for you to help your child get on track for success. Thank you so, thank you so much, Benita, for joining us today. uh Thank you so much. ah How is it going? How are you doing? Well, first of all, thank you for coming on your platform and having a platform for parents. That's important in the education atmosphere that we all circle around and try and navigate through. I'm doing great. It is a great time in education. I know you're like, girl, is it? But it is. It's a great time in education because we're able now to see. what innovative education looks like, what it should look like, and how we can access it. For the longest time, we've always had private schools, parochial schools, religious-based schools, whether it was Muslim to Catholic to Jewish to uh Protestant or Baptist, as we want to say, Episcopal, and at times it was out of reach for traditional parenting or regular parents. Now, We have this innovative education and now we know that it can be in reach for parents who realize that the traditional setting doesn't work for their child or children. And so that's why I say it's a great time to be in education. I believe in public school education, shout out to Brunswick County Public Schools and Lawrence and Virginia educated me amazingly. I went to Hampton University prepared and ready, um but I do realize that being in education over 26 years, um I miss some kids. Some kids slip through the crack of me teaching 35 students in the eighth grade reading class where everybody's reading on different reading levels, but you want me to teach to the test and then you want me to do social, all of the things. so that's how we now have innovative education. atmosphere is setting so we can say parents look I don't have three children maybe the middle child I'm a middle child. uh We might need something else or if you have a child that's in gymnastics or a child that's swim or a child that's a track star. Additional school doesn't always work for them because of their schedule and their driving and the sacrifices they have to make and so We have homeschool pods, homeschool hubs, we learning pods, and we have micro schools. So we have jumped right into everything and we're going to learn more. Can you tell us what it was that thing that made you fall in love with learning as a child? Oh goodness, that is a good question. I've been trying to think like, is it? Um... So I want to say, because I get, you know, people got excited because I was doing stuff, but I'm a self motivator. Like, you don't, I don't, I love to see my name in lights, but I'm also okay being in the background. And so I think for me, it's just the thought that I could do this. Look, I got this. My brain is beautiful. My brain works. look at what God did. Like all of those things like that. And so I will say I love, I fell in love, I will tell you, I fell in love with learning for real as a talented and gifted student in about the sixth grade. And I had a teacher, Ms. Freeman. And Ms. Freeman was our gifted teacher. So we got pulled out of class two days a week and we went to a completely different building. And one of the activities or lessons we did, was we walked in and she had turtles, not turtles, frogs and birds for us to nest in. Okay. And people were like, okay, we can do that all the time. No. She had them there and she had all the equipment and on the board it was like the equipment labeled and like a heart's label and the things we needed to do, but nothing was done. And there was no real direction. She was just like, this needs to be done in two hours. You need to have everything labeled and need to have everything pinned and need follow directions, you need to work together. And you're sitting there like, is she serious? And I'll never forget, she went over everything, she asked if we have any questions, and she around this corner where her desk was, where she could see us, and read the newspaper, the Richmond Times. And we were like, and we did it, like helping each other. We have a scalpel, like we're trying to cut open the thing, it smells and we're like, my God, like what is this? That, people are like, that is the weirdest moment. But that moment, I fell in love with learning. And then it happened again in chemistry class of Ms. honors chemistry. I think I was a 12th grader, 11th grader. And she had this vet of something and she said, hey, know, Put your arm in here. And she lit me on fire and she was like, put me out. Cause you can't do that now. was back in the 1900s. Don't do that now. And she, you know, put me out and she was like, you know, you know, what do you smell? What do you feel? What do you do? And she said, y'all have the entire week to figure out what's in this vat And I'm a country girl. So if not, that is a bucket, a clear bucket y'all. I'm a country girl. Sorry. I love this. And that made me realize that learning didn't just look one way. And I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the idea that learning could be, I'm just, I'm a show. I'm gonna give you something and then you unpack it. love that. So what I hear is when you started, you told us that you're a self-starter. And I think that, again, really appeals to who you are. And it may not have worked for everyone or that group of students, but she, uh both of those teachers had an idea of something that's really going to spark your interest. And it really did. And it's something that stuck with you. And I mean, that is amazing. So as you are growing up and you have this spark about learning and exploring, how did that show up in other places and the activities that you were involved in, hobbies, and even like what you pursued in your uh higher education? So shout out to my parents. Our mom Brenda passed away. Our dad Miller is still here. And they knew their kids. Thank you. They knew their kids. It's three of us. I'm in the middle, like I said, the oldest sister five years in front of me and a brother five years behind. I don't know if they planned it or not. They never told us. And so. I never forget, my sister was taking piano, my family plays, my mom's family plays piano. And my sister was playing piano and my mom later like, you you're four or five, it's time for you you know, get into something. And so they took me to a piano and you know, you play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And I was playing it because my grandma had taught me how play it. And I'll never forget Mrs. Jones looked at me and said, this one. And I was like, did she talk about me? Because I just played my little heart out. He said, this is not for you. And she was like, not this one, she doesn't have it. And I kind of knew it. My brain didn't work like that. And my mom and were like, that's fine. And they were like, Saturday, you know, have gymnastics and dance. And I fell in love. Like movement and the sound and the beat and the flipping. And I think from there, I realized that um that's okay. Like that door closes, that's okay. What's the path for me? Right. I love my sister, I'm trying to be like her. And the lady was like, no. m And even now, like my sister was in the bed in high school, I was a children. And so we just, it was okay, we're still sisters, but it was different. And so from understanding that my parents knew their children, and then teaching me to know what I like and what I don't like and what you start, you finish, that evolved into me going, I wanna be a nurse. I applied to college as a nursing major. And pediatric nurse, I'm going to save the babies and work with the babies, still children. oh And I went to Hampton as a nursing major. You know, when you go to college as a nursing major, not a nursing major, so you pass the little board and you take the class. And I woke up freshman year, I think I was in the middle of the semester, and I went to change my major to early childhood education, English. And I called my mom and dad and they said, my gosh, thank you. You've always all our money. Cause we knew like I was fighting it and I just didn't want to do it. He just made no money. And so from that I was saying, okay, I'm going to walk in this path that I'm good at. I'm good at this. Um, I'm good at teaching you how to do it. I'm good at breaking it down. I'm good at motivating you. I'm good at encouraging you, but that's all because how my parents poured into us. And so that's where it started from. So shout out to them always. oh For being who I needed them to be, like I tell people a lot of time, was like, didn't, we didn't get a lot of, I didn't. I cannot speak for my brother and my sister. I did not get a lot of spankings. They would have to tell their own stories. oh But my dad says, and he said, because a lot of times we could say to you, that's not a good idea. Or you need to do something else. oh And so I think that is also like just how I think about things. And then luckily I had a mom who would tell me, you do not think like everybody else and that is okay. When you look at that crossword puzzle, when you look at that math problem, you process it differently and that's fine. And so I went with that and I still go with that. That is so amazing. Yeah. How your parents poured into you. And that's, we talk a lot about these things that you're saying in, um, right now is it really is our job to make sure we are helping our kids to find their people, find where they fit in. Right. And it's not for us to do it, but it's to give them guidance. So you are a great example of this because we do talk about this a lot on the podcast. So. When you're thinking about, you know, your path that led into education, take us now to micro schools. Now, first of all, what is it for people who haven't heard of micro schools? So you know what a micro school is, but you're right, you haven't heard of it. So basically the origin of a micro school is how my dad and my great aunts and my great uncles, my grandparents went to school in a one room house, school house, where you can have all of the ages. You can have pre-K up to 12th grade. And we say micro schools, you want to have no less than five. Some micro schools go all way up to 200. If you're a solopreneur, that's what I was, you try not to go over 15, 20, because it's just you. So the way I tell people is if I took the traditional classroom that I taught in in public school, 25 to 35, sometimes 38, depending on where I was, I put all of those, right, you put all of those students into one room. And you can still do your groups. We know what small grouping is. We can still do that. But they're all mine, they're all together. And then I have the opportunity to personalize their learning. I have the opportunity to let them go down the rabbit hole. I have the opportunity to do project-based learning. I have the opportunity to do whatever I want to as long as I know they're getting the academics needed for them. And so I always tell them, said, think about who you were as a student, right? Somebody like myself, I was reading on the eighth grade reader level in third grade. The third grade reading, I was like, And then we we did rail robin back in the 1900s. We don't do it anymore. So we're doing rail robin. I read the whole Billy and Peggy play soccer. I'm finished. I've answered the three questions at the end. I've gone to the next story. And so now when it comes time for me and I put a little dot beside where I'm supposed to read, cause I've counted, you know, but it is next. Okay. board armor. But in a micro school, even though Bonita is third grade, she's over here with this group that is reading a 10th grade reading a novel and they analyze it and doing comprehension. Now, same Bonita, third grade math. Oh, I'm a third grade math. Don't move me. Let me say, matter fact, bring me some manipulatives. Beat me in the third grade math. But we can do that in our micro school. We give parents the option. We discipline differently. Normally there is no discipline problems. Kids want to come because now they're fully engaged and they see themselves. We see them. Okay, so tell me more about that discipline because that's always an issue that we hear people and you know, we're there's debates about, you know, not enough discipline or too much discipline or whatever. So what is that like? we do. So in real life you have boundaries, right? And we have self reflection. And we have norms. And we have self assessment. And so when you're able to go into most micro schools, we believe in the whole child. Right? And so one of the micro schools I worked in, it was middle school because that's my jam. And I had a student come in. He's like, I didn't sleep at all last night. He came in grumpy. he was one of my big football boys. He came in grumpy. said, go take a nap. He looked at me like, that's why we have those big bean bags in the back. Can you go take a nap? Take your shoes off, put the two bean bags together, lay across the bean bag, take your jacket if you're coming and I'll come get you in an hour. He slept two hours. That's fine. When he woke up, he ate lunch or breakfast, his late breakfast. He had breakfast with him. I said, eat, get yourself together and come join us. Now, does he, did he have to catch up on what he missed? Yeah. Did he look at his plan and say, okay, you know, I'm going to do this today, this today, but I need to work in my group for our project-based learning. Okay. Do we need to, am I going to fight you for being grumpy because you're 15 years old and you said to me, I'm tired. Mm-hmm. Now I could afford him and we would have had a whole rough day of me and him going back and forth. So at the end of the day, that discipline was removed. don't, it's not that a discipline he's tired. And so when we go into a micro school setting, we're looking at the whole child. What is the real problem? What do we need to unpack here? I've been in a micro school where I had several students. This is their last chance at education. You have been. told not to return to the public school and you've been told not to return to the parochial school and you've been told not to return to the charter school. This is it and your mom and your family have to work. And so they came into the micro school and they knew it. I said, you know, this is the last, this is the last time. And of course we're going to have issues as middle school, middle school or middle school. But what we don't have to do is say, I'm going to suspend you for five days. No, let's have a conversation for 15 minutes. Let's turn around to the young person and say, I asked you to leave me alone. I verbalized what I needed. Can you explain to me why you didn't respect my boundaries? Cause now we're teaching both students, teaching both of your ladies. If I say to you, give me a moment, leave me alone. I'm verbalizing. Walk away. We can, I need this. And so that is something we always want to teach. And so we have that time to do that. In public school, I did as much social emotional teaching as I could, but I didn't have time. But now we can have that time. And when we do that, the discipline decreases. And we know I can only speak for middle schoolers because that's my thing. In middle school, I don't want to be up in here. You don't want me, I can't wear my hoodie. You want me in this ugly uniform. I can't be myself. You in my face, my hormones are raging boys and girls. And I need calm and safe. And I don't have that. So we make sure it's calm. And say, and then the discipline we do have, let's have discussions. We're going to pull parents in. We're going to have meetings. You may need to take a break from us for a day, but we try not to get there. We try and figure out what's going on. And we have, I will say we have time to do it. We know that in traditional settings is about the time. We just don't have time. And in this, we do have time to unpack some things. We have time to. pulling other resources and the discipline drops. And then at the end of the day, they know, look, you might not be a good fit. That's okay. And I'm gonna release you to find the perfect school for you and your family. Thank you. Because some stuff is egregious and some stuff we're not gonna, we're not gonna do. And that's okay. And that's another thing, like every place isn't for everybody. Sometimes that parochial school is perfect for someone. The micro school is good for some people. The public school, it just depends. And it could be a number one school. It still may not be the kid, the one for your child, right? And so, yeah. And so, yeah, so that's what we need to understand. We talk a lot about this on the podcast. So tell us a little bit about your um education, like what you did in the public schools, what you taught in, what brought you out of it. Goodness, started in third grade. uh I started in third grade with an aid and only 12 students. Yeah, I was living the life I think, this is teaching. It's like, that. Did have a little observation. They were like, girl, you're not teaching gifted kids. You're teaching regular kids. Break it down some more. Had great mentors in Sussex County, Virginia, then transferred over to Newport News, Virginia. And that's when I got into middle school. And in middle school I taught history, social studies, English. And then I taught, we called it back then it was the. Cotor class. So it was myself and another teacher teaching students who may have been two or three grade levels behind or had learning disabilities. Loved it. Co-teaching. So we were co-teaching. Loved it. Trained by amazing co-teachers who were seasoned, but they knew how to train us general color, so general ed. The general ed teachers because they were the special education teachers. And so we merged to bring these classes together. Did that for a couple of years. Was a military spouse. Of course I'm overseas moving around as a teacher's aide in kindergarten. Realizing teacher's aide in kindergarten was great. Loved my home main teacher. Was not a fan of kindergarteners. Was like at home. What are we doing? Why are you crying? what's the problem? Cause I had gone from third grade down to kindergarten. Then when I left there, went, what are you talking about? Well, I was home. Did you just put your booger on me? Like what is that? And so I was like, okay, Lord, this is not my thing. I'm going back to my middle school. And people are like back to middle school. And I'm like, yeah, because why not? Um, these are my people. And they're like, you know, and I realized in middle school I was transferring, we were moving, and I was getting all of these interviews in um the rough side of the city. And I remember saying to one of the guys who interviewed me, I said, why do I keep getting interviews with these particular schools on this side of DC? And he said, have you looked at your resume? And I was like, it's my resume. And he said, but in your resume, you are considered a turnaround teacher. And I said, I don't even know what that is. And he said, well, you go in and the students' scores and grades are this way. And when you leave, their scores and grades are this way. And so they've deemed you a person who can come in and make a difference. I said, that's why Georgetown schools are not calling me. He was like, yeah, I said, okay, well, let me lean into it. And so I leaned into it and I became a turnaround specialist where I go into schools that were on fire or failing. And I stayed two to three years and we helped turn it around. And as a teacher in the classroom, but also you would be a teacher in the classroom, would come in and say, the teachers have been teaching there. You would come in, they would hire me to come in as a department chair or team lead. So I come in leading. but I'm also teaching two to three classes. So it's like, coach, it's a hybrid role. I love that. Yeah, and come in and you're teaching and then I transitioned from there to a Dean of Culture and Climate and then from there a Dean of Discipline and Culture and Climate because you know we'll combine everything so they won't pay you more. And that has been my journey so then I got there and then I started thinking of something else, like, this is great, because I'm going do what I want to do. And I'm going apologize later, close my door. The kids don't say close the door. And I'm like, today is no talking. You just go have these check marks, and you're going to use your laptop, and you use your phone. And I would put a sign on my door like, phone usage approved. And they would approve by who? Me. I approved it. And the kids was like, what? Or some days we would have We will be finished early and I'll be like, look, everybody come get this worksheet and answer number three, five and six. Okay. Slide for the worksheet right here. I'm going to put the thing on the board. We're going to take the last 20 minutes of class and do nothing. So if you want to put your air pod, air potty in or something and just hide it. So actually put it in this ear. So they walk in the room, they can't see it. And it can't see what I said, I got to put these grades in. If you work with me, I will. you. And so here I'm breaking all the rules because you know phones in the classroom and the phone is out, take the phone. I am not the phone police. And I realized then I was tired of grading. I'm tired of being a phone police. I'm tired of being uniformed police. I'm just tired. It has to be another way to teach. has to be. And COVID came. And we went online and the kids were still learning and they loved it because I changed it and it was more like college. And while they're doing that, I'm Googling like alternative schools. And you know, you do alternative schools, they talk about kids are the bad kids. I'm not talking about them. And then I'm like innovative schools. when I clicked innovative schools, Kind Academy popped up with Iman Eileen. I love her. She saved me from going crazy. And Kanda Academy is a micro school in Florida. And was in Florida at the time and she trains us and there's a community. And so I went to one of their little webinars and I was sitting, you know, in a little box like I'm in there and I was like, these are my people. I am not crazy. I want to open a school. And that's what led me there was like basically at COVID time, one of my students, said this, he said not to be disrespectful. I was like, Lord, he about to be disrespectful. And I said, I told y'all stop saying that because stop saying it and think about what you're going to say. How can you say it? And so he was like, I don't have his, I prefer to have your class online and to have history online. And I would prefer to come into the school building for math and science to do the labs and have hands on one. I said, that's not disrespectful. You're telling me I said, and the reality is there are schools like this. uh And that got me thinking because here we are in COVID and the kids are telling me, I really don't want to come back to school. You can teach me online forever. And they're doing the work. They're passing. We're learning. We're growing. We're still testing all of the things. And they're telling me, so I'm sitting here going, it's gotta be like, how do I get out of this? And I didn't. uh schools opened back up and they closed all those doors of the innovative stuff we saw. And I suffered for about four more years. And finally, I was like, Lord. I can't, I can't. And so I said, want to make me a two year plan and I'm going to retire myself after 26 years on my birthday. This going to be my last, okay, this is to 26th years on May 26th, my last eighth grade class. I was in Memphis at the time and I said, Oh Lord, it's been three years now. Three, yeah, three years now. It would be four, what was this? 2026? Yeah, it'll be three years now. And I said, okay, Lord, I have no idea what I'm doing. So I called my brother-in-law and my sister and said, can I move back in with y'all in Miami? In the guest room. And they said, yeah. So I packed up and I went back and I worked at EdTech. But I'm working at EdTech, but I'm still meeting with Kind Academy. I found Kipod. I'm doing this. I'm building. And I said, let me open this micro school. So I opened a micro school online. And then I started tutoring in the afternoon and the parents were like, can you open a school? So we started a school. We did it for almost a year. Then I closed it because I was relocating. And that's what got me there. It was a simple fact that I had a thought that it has to be something different than what I'm doing now. And that student telling me that's what they wanted. And then that's when I was like, oh, I got this. And then how do I get engaged in the community? And then I found a national association of black middle school leaders. went to a Vela conference in DC. So Vela, don't make me lie. Don't make me lie. I'm gonna have to Google it. talking. I don't know the real definition of it. I'm a parent, listen again, this sounds great. I don't have no money though or whatever. Like how am I funding this or getting my kid into it? Let me tell you, so it depends on where you live. It depends on what you want. So there are homeschool hubs where homeschool parents come together or it's the micro school that deals with homeschool parents. So that means you can come two days a week, three days a week, four days a week and we're off on Friday or we do field trips on Friday. That tuition is going to look different because you're only going two days a week and really is the come in. to work on project-based learning or to come in and do STEM or robotics or higher level math or to come in and say, you know, maybe I need to work two days a week. Maybe I need to go into the office two days a week. So those are the two days you're going to go here. um So that's going to look different. um Where do you live? oh My high school was here in Cutler Bay in South Miami. So I tuition was like $12,000. Now that's nothing because the private school up the street. is $40,000 a year for elementary school. I was with middle school and high schoolers. But I also was in a state where they have EESA vouchers. And so I made sure, and because every state voucher looks different, you make sure you're aligned and you're certified and you put yourself into the marketplace so parents can find you and see you. And then they're able to use that funding. to pay for their child's tuition. um And then a lot of states still don't have it. And so if you're paying private school tuition of $40,000 a year, and you find my school or any of the founders that I know, and we're only charging $12,000 to $15,000. You're okay. You're like, yeah, buy me up. Cause what's the problem? And so it will vary depending, and some schools do sliding scales. So they look at the parents, guardians income. And so, you know, the parents who are paying 60,000 already, they may pay 20,000. And the parents who were coming from the public school, you may only pay 8,000. And then the voucher gives you 9,000. You're You're covered. Got it. Sounds great. really depends. And one of the things I do believe in founders, we want parents and guardians to have some skin in the game, like you say. And so a lot of times there is the vouchers 12,000, your tuition might be 13,000 and then parents pay 100 a month. Or you do a deposit to hold the spot and then we just use that deposit to roll over. Okay. payment plans. And so there's always a way to get it done. A lot of, if they're an LLC, Michael's school, they get with a fiscal sponsor who is a nonprofit and they help them fund it, or they start a completely different nonprofit for all of the education needs. And then that helps with tuition sometimes. So they get scholarships. And so then, and then Vaila. gives you some scholarships. So, Vaila gives scholarships. want to say oh I work, Kipod is another organization that helps with funding. Can you spell cry pod for us? K-A-I-P-O-D. Yep, are, look at me looking for valent. And you know what it doesn't even tell us, it just says own your education. Capital V, capital E, capital L, capital A. And you know what, I just thought about it, I like, I've never seen them break down. Yeah, it's not even broken down what it means. I just know it's an amazing organization. Then you have smaller organizations. And so that's why a lot of times you have that nonprofit 501 arm so that you can get grants. And so you can get, so if your school is focused on STEM, which we all are, or STEAM or dance, or you want to do a six month project based learning about the history of your city, there's normally a grant you can look for, find and apply for. And a lot of times they argue towards nonprofits. But sometimes they aren't. I've gotten several grants that they were not geared specifically for nonprofits. You just need to have your ducks in a row as a business. Got it. All right. So tell us, I know that you are doing, uh it's micro school week, right? And tell us where we can find out more. We could follow some of these em online offerings so we could get more information. Yeah. So we have Michael Schools Week. It is actually sponsored by Michael Schools Network. They are at Michael Schools Near Me. That's literally their Instagram handle. I love it. And the National Association of Black Macro School Leaders, NABML. They're both on LinkedIn and Facebook, but I'm going live and everybody's part of the Michael School movement. They are doing different things, but I love going live every year and getting different founders to come. And so this year go to my Instagram is the educoncierge and you'll see it, but I'm also on LinkedIn. So I'm posting on LinkedIn. We go live on Tik Tok. We go live on Instagram. And then it connects, know, Instagram now connects to your Facebook. And so it's there. And I do want to say this. um I came from public schools where we did a lot of gatekeeping. Mmm. from the parents, the teachers, other teachers, or the administrators. In the micro school world, we don't gatekeep. If you have a question and I can't answer it, I'm gonna connect you to somebody on LinkedIn or Instagram and say, they have a 15 year old, they're in Arizona, they have questions, can you help them? So that's always how people come listen to the live, follow the people that are there, and anytime you have a question, go into their DMs professionally, professionally. and ask questions, ask about funding like you did, ask about organizations, what is the community like, how do I get started? And as a parent, sometimes parents, do have to untrain you from the public schools and that's okay. Parents of high schoolers and middle schoolers want to know, do you do grades or portfolios because they want to matriculate to college and university? Younger students, how are you? How do you know they mastered it? So all the questions that parents and guardians, I'm the auntie and aunties and uncles and godparents are going to ask. We have no problem explaining how a micro school works. And a lot of time you're able to come in. We want to know you to see if you're going to fit. Is this a good fit for your child? So they'll do day of discovery. They will do open houses. They will give you a call. so don't parents ask all the questions. How do you handle with my child is having to ask my time. What do you do if an unauthorized person comes up here to pick up my child? You know, this, this is still about us being safe in our environment. And this is your most precious thing that you're giving to us. And we need that trust. So I tell my parents, I ask all the questions, go up there as many times as you need to go. And if you don't feel this right and they don't feel this right and you said it earlier, that's okay. Yeah. that's what we're doing in Micro Schools Week. So we want everybody to know we're out there. We're from Arizona, Virginia. I've had Florida, California. I can't remember where everybody is for the rest of the week, but everywhere. And that's what we do. And it's important. You you have National School Choice Week. We're doing Micro Schools Week now. Next week is Nurse Appreciation and Teacher Appreciation Week. And so all of the things kind of come and culminate and make because we're ready to get out of school. And so, yeah, go to my LinkedIn, follow me there, come to our live, ask all the questions. I ask the questions while they're in live. When the questions, they're like, oh, I'm going to read it out to them. They're going to read it and like, Benita, I really want to answer this one. So let me see and understand that there's no micro school that's the same. The only thing that goes through everybody is that we want to teach the children and it's innovative. Okay. nothing that's going to be the same even if they're in the same city because the mission and the person who created and developed, they listen to their clients, which are the parents and the students. And we're like, what do you need? What do you want? What's going to be best? And we matriculate through that. So that's why you'll say some people are using grades, their traditional grades. Some people aren't. You know, some people have up to 200. Some people like when I get to 25, we'll close the door. So we're good. So you're going to keep continuing to look. I don't know. I people, took me a long time to find a Lactician. took me a long time to trust somebody to touch my hair. And it's going to be the same way finding your child, but ask questions, join the Facebook groups. Um, look on LinkedIn, look on TikTok. We're on there. We are showing you what the kids are doing. What is a day in that classroom look like? The kids are taking over. They're doing the channel for us. We have permission from parents and they've signed the forms. But yeah, that's important. So I'm excited about MicroSchool. I love innovative spaces. If somebody builds another school that looks like a prison. If you build another school that looks like a jailhouse. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they're out there. I'm hearing more and more about those schools. I'm in a very old school. My school where I work is over 100 years old. but yeah. What are they going to do? What are we going do? What's happening? they have plans to, you know, renovate and, you know, rebuild certain things, but yeah, they're, you know, but yeah, so yeah, but the schools that don't have like windows and stuff like that, I'd rather have the old school. I was like, and I didn't know. So we could once again, I'm from rural Virginia. had windows everywhere. Cause we're country kids. We tried to get outside, open the windows so we could smell outside. Like how do we get out here? And I remember I was at tech. So I go into the schools to train the teachers about the program. And I remember walking in the pillow and I was like. That's missing. Where's the windows? Yeah. so you had to go in and then there was a rotunda. And so like the light was coming. It's like, y'all gotta be kidding me. No. And so I remember going to the, talking to the sister person when I was like, so telling on the windows and she started laughing. She said, I saw you on a camera when you walked through and you was like, and I was like, cause I've never been to prison. I've never been to jail. builders? don't, I think they are or something. Yeah. Even now, even the new schools, they're the same builders, but now they have understood. Like, I guess you have educators now who are on your team. um Because even now, like, placing the outlets or the projector, I would almost say, who put these projectors up? They are backwards. Yeah, that's what that's another thing about schools like public schools are constantly getting input from people who aren't teaching who aren't in the classroom. They don't talk to you about it or nothing like it's like they could have talked. We could have talked to them about this. This doesn't even make any sense. And then, know, that's you. This is what you have as a public school teacher. This is what it is. This is how it is. They don't care that you like, of course. If I'm going to design your house, would help if I would talk to you about what you want the house like and how you use it and what spaces. No, I'm just going to design it the way I want. And that's what we deal with in public schools. it's just like, this is someone made the new policy, like where the policy come from and what made them think that that made sense. And they're like, this is how it is. And it's like, this is how it is. This is it. think and that's one of the things you will hear a lot of micro school founders. They were like, just like me, I was like, you were just tired. And you were like, I can't do this because it makes no sense. Like this is not me. And and and I mean, like I was telling somebody else, like, you know, here I am, we're like three weeks on this committee to pick the new social studies books and we're, you know, we're reading and we are. This is serious because I was in the state of Virginia and, Virginia has a history and I grew up like my teachers taught us all the history from Pocahontas to enslavement to the all of the things everything that they shut down this they shut down this county because they didn't want to integrate so none of the kids none of the black kids they didn't get a diploma till I was in high school now these people grow but the white kids were able to go to school because they opened an academy so they told us the truth okay Yeah. I am, I'm like looking at these social studies books for three weeks, we're staying after school. A book adoption committee. We give you our recommendations. You picked the one that's the last one on the list, the worst one. And it keeps happening. Yeah, it's happening. You I'm in California. We have spent time on book adoptions and then they're like, something happened with that publisher that we chose. They weren't vetted or they didn't have this. I was like, then what were they doing at the road show or whatever they call it? was like, so yeah, they just didn't want us to have what we, you know, like, and we know we've been through it. Like we spent all this time. really being serious about what we're going to choose and then you gave us something else. And basically they had two choices that they gave. It's like because you wanted to pretend like we had a choice. Why you, and then you wasted my time. I could have been tutoring the kids, I could have been sleep. What are you talking about? it's like if you weren't gonna choose, like, yeah, but yeah, same story. So I will say this, and I'm what? Because I think sometimes parents will be like, these micro school people, they don't even like public schools. Stop. Full stop. I'm a product of a public school. I taught at a public school. My mom was a public school teacher. My aunts, uncles, cousins, and my grandmother, all public school teachers. What we are saying to you is that that may not be the fit for your child. And there are options and there's opportunity. to find the fit to educate the amazing human being that you are raising. And that's why we have Michael's schools. love it. You summed it up. We love that. So thanks again for joining us on the Filing for Learning podcast. Parents, educators out there, as I always say, do something today that gives your child the competitive advantage. Please check out Benita and all the things that she has, her community, learning about micro schools. And again, have a great week.