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Already dreading NYT lifestyle articles on micro schools rich people form with their friends: Wilson renovated a hardware store that had recently gone out of business downtown. “I loved that my children would learn in a space like that,” he said. “Tools feel so metaphoric now.”
His wife, Zebra, commissioned a designer friend to make school uniforms, inspired by the hardware store theme. “I wanted the kids to feel comfortable all day while they did the hard work of learning from a private tutor.”
Lunch every day is delivered by a local artisan cheese company, a kid-friendly variation on the ploughman’s lunch. “Working people eat so simply,” Wilson said, sipping an espresso from the machine he installed in the front of the school for his fellow busy parents.
“I mean, you don’t need that much to stay alive,” Zebra said, unloading one of the handmade desks from a just arrived crate. “Pandemics are all about simplicity and community.”
For example, Wilson points out that the private security guards hired to stand outside the school used to work in the hardware store. “I love the sense of continuity this brings to the kids,” he said.
“We know how fortunate we are,” Zebra says. “So every Friday we will drop of some canned goods at a local food shelter, masked of course! We will post the photos of the kids handing over cans of beans on Instagram to set an example for other micro schools.”
Wilson adds, “You know, last summer we just checked out for four months and went to Greece. I used to say to Zebra, ‘Maybe we will never go back.’ I feel that way about this micro school. It doesn’t hurt that our private teacher also teaches yoga to parents at pick up!”
It’s not alway joyful work, building a school in the town where you have a second home. “It can be very scary,” Zebra said. “I mean we are launching this venture without a net. I mean we own an old hardware store now! That can be really terrifying in a pandemic.”
“I hope people look at us and know that sometimes it’s worth dipping into your vast savings account for your kids’ well-being,” Wilson said, adding that the couple may have to sell off one of their other homes in order to bribe college admissions officers in just 8 more years.
