A Day in Our Lives as Worldschoolers Living in Malawi
I’m the parent of a seven-year-old. I’m also a teacher by profession, but I’m one of the growing number of teachers dissatisfied with the mainstream education systems that dominate our world. I’ve taken some steps to give my son and I some freedom in this respect, but I’m working towards long-term global travel while educating and working. Here’s a day in my life at the moment:
My day today began at 5.30am. I sat on our outdoor patio here in Malawi with a cup of tea and had a few minutes of peace, taking in the garden and the cool air. It’s the end of winter here, meaning the cold, sometimes even frosty , mornings have disappeared, and we’re waking up to golden light that rivals Tuscany, tropical plants all around, and some very early-rising, very noisy preachers whose voices carry on the wind from their amplifiers in nearby churches.
Peace is relative: the workmen were already beginning to hammer in the apartment upstairs.
All-too-soon, the alarm shouted again and I woke up my son as gently as I could. He took a while to get up, then came out to tell me how he thought all mugs should have detachable handles in case we want to use them for other things, and that all handles should fit all mugs.
I gave him a huge hug good morning, conflicted all the while because time was ticking and the school bus would leave in less than an hour, and because I knew he wasn’t going to be a little boy for much longer. It was a moment that really did ‘hurt my heart’ as they say, as so many precious, fleeting moments of parenthood do. But he still had his homework to complete. He’d been so tired yesterday that he cried when he tried.
If you have a child in school, you’ll know the battles that take place before leaving the house. I truly hate these wasted moments of energy and negativity. Let’s leave it by saying my child cried with anger before 7am today and I went to work feeling awful.
I have been a teacher on-and-off for twenty-five years. At the moment, I work in an international high school. It is one of the loveliest, most relaxed and caring schools I have ever worked in. Our students thrive academically and in extra-curricular areas too. Most seem to genuinely love their school, and there is no doubt that it gets them places in their future.
However, I have long been of the opinion that I want my child to be educated differently. It’s about time constraints, I think.
I want him to be able to learn in a self-directed way.
I want him to be able to play football for three hours without worrying about writing out spellings before bed.
I want him to be able to produce something: a film, a presentation, a book, showing how an engine works or why detachable handles on mugs are such a great idea.
I myself have lived by the bell for much of my adult life (the alarm, first period, second period, you get it). As a parent of a young child, I don’t need any more enforced breaks in my thoughts or my concentration. I don’t want it for my child either.
This academic year I have gone down to part-time hours at school, with the aim of solely working online in education by the end of next August. Today I am at home for almost three hours during school time and it is liberating (although it has already been cut short by an impromptu school meeting).
I am good at time-management. I began my three hours by sorting the craft and stationery boxes that were spilling over in our house. I have binned one and a half bin liners of rubbish and I feel better for it.
Now I’m writing this. After I finish at school this afternoon, I will work on my online classes which will launch by the end of October. I’ll probably do this in the garden.
This afternoon my son will go to his first extra-curricular afternoon of tennis at a local sports club. School will take him and return him. He is beyond excited. Tomorrow he will attend his first training session of the football squad, a place he earned through dedication and grit. It is his first love, and school fuels this.
There are pluses and minuses to regular school. He is an only child and I am a single parent. I know many home educators and worldschoolers are great at making social connections. It’s something that I will need to prioritise.
Financially also, I need to be in a stable position before I take my child to places where we know no-one. I will need to earn money while also having enough time for him. We need to be able to fly to friends and family in an emergency.
Another huge benefit we gain from living in Malawi as a family is that my son (who is of mixed heritage White British and Black Malawian), sees people of color in positions of power and responsibility as the norm. He has not yet had to face the difficulties of racism in the UK that many children are aware of tragically early in their existence. I have to steel myself for the obvious fact that I will not know how it feels to be a victim of prejudice on this scale, but Malawi helps me. Maybe this is for another story though.
Today we will build our plan together. My son knows that we live our lives from year to year at present and he is okay with it. We have already begun our journey, by my son leaving the rigidity and coldness of the UK school system to attend a smaller school without external examinations and tests, a school that won’t throw the law at us if we go away for a few days or he takes a day off due to tiredness or a family visit.
This evening, over dinner, I will be asking him whether he’s still aiming for Japan to be our next destination on our travels in a year or two, or whether he’s more set on Portugal, homeland of his hero, Cristiano Ronaldo. The pair of us will sit, dream and plan, while we feel the breeze in our beautiful garden in a country that we enjoy so much.
