Finding the Right fit
One Family’s Journey to School-Life Balance
Written by: Ella Kunze
Amy is like many working moms living in Minnesota with three school-aged children; at 8:30 a.m. she is shuffling her kids into the car to drop them off at school before rushing back home to get on a work call. Most days, while Amy’s children are at school and she is at home working her job, she silently hopes her kids won’t come home from school too exhausted for family time. Amy is particularly concerned about her children’s mental well-being, as they show increasing signs of anxiety and overstimulation as they grow older.
Once 3:00 p.m. rolls around, Amy is back in the car and heads towards the school to pick up her children, who excitedly fill her in on the events of their day. One day, Amy’s daughter, a second-grader, said, “Mom! Guess what I created today?” Amy, expecting her daughter to describe an art project of sorts, urges her daughter to continue, only to find out her eight-year-old spent the afternoon creating PowerPoints on random topics, such as Dolly Parton, elephants, and why she wants to move to Montana — topics that did not relate to the lesson. Amy’s kids also often talk about the games they play on their school-provided Chromebooks.
“That’s what has been happening in public schools right now,” Amy tells me. “You are looking at these classrooms full of little kids — little humans — who have these big headsets on, not talking because they are playing silly little games where they get prizes for doing their math. And then, when they’re done, these kids are addicted.” Amy also adds that her son, a kindergartener, often talks about the various cartoon shows he watches in school. Amy made it clear:
“We do love the school — we think the teachers are trying as hard as they can.”
She adds, “I think technology is fine, I am not saying I want to live under a rock. I mean I work with a technology company. I think PowerPoints are great if you’re doing a research project or for something you need to learn.”
However, she worries about her children’s undeveloped brains and the damage the technology used in school may be causing.
A Lynn University article notes several cons of technology in early childhood education, including negative impacts on mental health, diminished cognitive development and problem-solving skills, decreased direct peer interaction, and increased distractions.
Amy has noticed an increase in anxiety affecting her children’s everyday life. Much of the anxiety her children feel stems from the pressure of going to school from 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. every day — which, in turn, causes Amy and her husband to have anxiety. “We’re constantly putting out different fires because we’re just so darn tired,” Amy says.
Beyond the long school hours, Amy be- lieves the traditional education system it- self contributes to her children’s struggles.
“The traditional school model accounts for the really high students and the really low students; it doesn’t account for the average students that need extra help.
There just aren’t enough resources and people to help all the kids,
she explains. The lack of resources has posed a challenge for Amy’s children, who are among the average students who need extra help, “So then my kids get lost in the cracks and are falling behind in some subjects, but once they are one-on-one with someone, they totally get it.”
Amy’s family has tried different counselors and tutors to get the kids where they need to be, but “there’s just not enough time in the week to do that. You do school, and then you do counseling, and then you do some type of tutoring — even if it’s just at home — but when do you have time to do all that? We just really want that balance.”
Since sending their kids to public school, Amy and her husband’s list of concerns has grown, and they realized traditional public school just wasn’t the right fit for them. They had spent years trying to fit the mold of school five days a week, but she says, “I just can’t — I can’t fit in that mold.”
One evening, Amy and her husband started the search for schools that would accommodate their children’s needs and offer their family the freedom to have a balanced schedule. After researching many schools in various states, they found EMERGE, a K-12 university-model Chris- tian school located in Bozeman, Montana. The founders of the school, Colleen Olsen (the current principal) and Janet Pannell, asked themselves the same question Amy and her husband were asking:
What does the perfect school look like to us?
The answer to the founders’ question was a school with a healthy balance of instruction and at-home learning, subjects taught by passionate experts, affordable tuition, and a focus on personal responsibility.
The school provides students, and their parents, with the flexibility to pursue their interests outside of the classroom by offering in-person classes two days a week and structured coursework that is to be completed offsite. As Amy and her husband read about EMERGE, the items on their list of “the perfect school” got checked off, one by one.
Amy and her husband currently live in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. After spending the last two summers taking vacations in Montana and finding the school of their dreams, they have decided to take the leap and relocate to Bozeman. When asked if she thinks schools like EMERGE could thrive in other towns or if this concept is unique to Bozeman, Amy said, “You must have the parents that want to be involved, because this would not work if you don’t want to be involved, and it does depend on your job and the flexibility you have.” She continues to say, “I think it flourishes out west because of the access to the outdoors, and there’s the appetite of the people. I think it’s the perspective of the people. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh my gosh’ look at these mountains; look at all these trails.’ I don’t think you’re going to get that in the middle of, say, Chicago.”
Amy’s family prioritizes spending time outside; they are always out finding new trails and planning their next camping trip. Amy has always been an avid outdoors lover, “I’m a 5:00 a.m. early morning runner, I’ve just always appreciated it and been able to see the beauty of the outdoors.”
As Amy’s family’s schedules have gotten more demanding, the outdoors has become even more important —
“In school right now, the kids are constantly stimulated. They don’t know how to be bored and make their own fun. They aren’t able to go outside and be creative and think through a game that doesn’t have an electronic piece to it. I think it’s really invaluable.”
A study done by the National Library of Medicine reveals that unsupervised outdoor activities are linked to cognitive, social, physical, and psychological development in children.
Furthermore, outdoor play stimulates children’s creativity and problem-solving abilities while strengthening wayfinding, decision-making, and adaptability skills.
EMERGE recognizes the importance of the outdoors to families with a Christian background in Bozeman.
Colleen encourages parents to go fishing with their kids in the middle of the week. She wants them to work really hard Monday - Thursday so they can have a long weekend to go skiing or camping. She wants the children to be home in the middle of the day during the week so they can help with the dishes, laundry, or making meals. Through these non-school related activities, children learn to be independent and responsible, and how to have a healthy work-life balance.
From talking with her neighbors, whose children are similar in age and involved in multiple sports, Amy noticed how they’re always talking about how busy they are and how they don’t have time to sit down for a family dinner during the week, something Amy and her husband prioritize. She continues to say, “People who are doing that great, if they’re happy and that’s their jam, good for them. That’s seriously great, but it’s not for everyone.”
“This is a radical idea,” Amy realizes, “When we start telling people that our kids are going to school two days a week in person, and then they’ll do the rest at home as 79 teacher-approved lessons, they’re going to look at us like we have two heads.” Amy compares the concept of university model K-12 school to how people viewed working from home before COVID-19: “When my first daughter was born, I worked five days a week. There was no such thing as work from home. When my second daughter was born, I really didn’t like it.” Amy further explains that she had to write a proposal and jump through numerous hoops for her company to allow her to work from home when her second daughter was born in 2017. Now, however, millions of people work remotely.
Amy goes on to state, “I really do think by the time my kids have kids, that this type of university model school for elementary and middle school is going to be so much more common. But it’s just like the work-from- home thing for us as adults, nobody could even fathom that.” Amy feels that “it’s really amazing that the founders of EMERGE had this idea and executed it because people around here [a suburb of Minneapolis] don’t even think about that.”
EMERGE discovered the solution to instilling the idea of work-life balance at a young age, and it’s simple:
less time spent at school allows for more time spent outside of school.
Amy realized, “School doesn’t need to be that long. They’re doing all these other things. When people ask me, ‘Wait a minute, at EMERGE you only get two maybe Anna Bouressa | “Snack Time At School” three instructional days?’ I say, well, look at public school now. Look at how much time they’re doing on shows, PowerPoints, learning how to line up, and other random things. You could strip all that away.”
Amy shares her perspective, emphasizing the importance of balance: “Nobody’s been taught you need to have a balance [between work and life]. It’s the permission — that’s what I love about EMERGE — it gives you the permission to have a balanced approach.” She elaborates further, explaining “You don’t have that at traditional school because you have to be there, or you get called from the school, like, ‘Where are you?’ [EMERGE] just allows you to live your life differently.”
Amy’s final thought and something she urges families to consider is this: “Now, people always say it goes by so fast, and I’m always like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s so cheesy.’ And now that I’m really in it with three kids and two jobs between my husband and I, it does go by fast. And how do you want to spend your life? Want to spend your life driving around like a mad woman between practices, drop off, pick off, and then you’re like, ‘I don’t even know how it is Monday’, or would you want to spend your life a little more purposely?”