117. The Microschool Movement: Growth, Impact, and What’s Next with Whitney Retzer

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Tara: \Welcome to Mindful School Marketing. I’m Tara Clays. 

Aubrey: And I’m Aubrey Burch. Today we’re joined by Whitney Reer. Whitney Leads Engagement outreach, and much more within the Micro Schools network@microschools.com. She’s based in Cyprus and has a global background from working in K through 12 and higher ed in the usa.

Japan. Thailand. UAE. Azer. Baja Cyprus, [00:01:00] Indian Honduras. Welcome Whitney. We’re so excited to talk to you today and learn more about micro schools. 

Whitney: Thank you so much for having me. 

Tara: what a list of places that you’ve lived that’s quite intriguing. Um, and I’d love to spend the whole time talking about that. But let’s start with the basics of what we’re talking about today, which is micro schools. So can you tell us what exactly is a micro school and how does it differ from traditional or private independent schools?

Whitney: Well, first of all, I’ll say that there isn’t, let’s say, a widely accepted definition of micro schools. If you talk to researchers who study micro schools and homeschool adjacent learning communities, no one can really agree. But but for our purposes today, or for, I think what we mainly agree as a community of learners is, um.

We are very small, intentionally small learning environments. Think schools of maybe 25 all the way up to 200. So some, some larger schools that are around 1 71 75 even consider [00:02:00] themselves micro schools. And so these are, these are small learning communities that foster a deep sense of belonging in community.

And typically they’re operating like mixed stage groups. If you kind of think about the Montessori style, where maybe you have six to eight year olds group together. Eight to 10 year olds. And so they’re, they’re learning content that’s really customized based on their needs and, um. So I think one of the things that these schools are offering something that large public and private schools isn’t, is this kind of flexibility and customization of learning and, and a, and a, an agency as well.

That it’s just simply a lot more difficult the larger that you get. And typically these schools are also using community resources. So I mean, it’s kind of. It’s, it’s kind of obvious, right? Because they don’t have giant sprawling campuses, like a lot of beautiful private schools or the public schools as well.

So they’re using the, the city [00:03:00] or their area as a campus, right? They’re using local libraries, gyms, they’re going to yoga studios, they’re going to museums, parks to use playgrounds. And and then as. As far as setup go, a lot of them are independent schools. They might have, they might be incorporated as a nonprofit with board governance or their private schools as well.

And I think, I think, I guess the main thing is that these are really the I ideology is that we’re adapting to the learner versus the teacher. And that’s really the ethos of a lot of micro schools. Thank 

Aubrey: you so much for, so, oh, go ahead. I know it’s a lot to unpack, so Yes, it is. And I’m so curious, like you mentioned like, what, what did you say, one 60 or something in terms of student population?

Like I am curious if our audience was thinking, oh, micro schools, that’s like when they have 10 to 12 people in their school, but no, you’re like, oh, it could be at like one 60, right? Yeah, 

Whitney: yeah, absolutely. I mean. When I look at our numbers as we [00:04:00] have more than 200 member schools, um, at Micro Schools network, and the majority are 25 to 50 students.

But then above that, then we’ve got a, a community of more than a hundred learners. So, so there’s a big gap. And then once in a while you do run into really small schools. And I think, like if you think about from a, a lot of times accreditors, they don’t consider a school unless it’s operating out of, out of a separate location. So, so if you’re operating out of your home, even if you have a lot of other students, then they wouldn’t consider that for accreditation reasons. 

Aubrey: So interesting. I’m curious, you know, and I’m thinking our audiences as well micro schools have been around for a while, um, but lately, I mean, I’ve been hearing it in the news, you know, there’s just a surge of this interest lately about micro schools.

You know, could you kind of reflect on like what’s driving the current growth in this movement? 

Whitney: Yeah, I think there’s, I mean, there’s so many different factors. I think what. One of the main things that really perpetuated was the [00:05:00] pandemic, right? All of a sudden, families got a really good look into what was happening inside their kids’ classrooms and education, and they started rethinking about rethinking what education they wanted for their kids, and then also we’re just at such a crazy technology point, right?

Where technology is enabling all kinds of alternative learning environments, learning setups, hybrid hubs, all this sort of things that happen, and then we’ve got things like. You know, on the national front where there’s all kinds of, um. There’s all kinds of public funding that’s available for private education vouchers.

ESAs, that’s ESAs are educational savings accounts for those that don’t know. And so there’s more than 30 states now that have that have some sort of school choice legislation on the books. And of course there are voting, voting on measures and introducing new things regularly. And so that’s really been a catalyst for micro school expansion.[00:06:00] 

And then I would say, you know, on the international front is similar things in terms of people really wanting customization. They want a deep look at what’s happening. They’re wanting real world education versus maybe something more theoretical entrepreneurship. They want flexibility within it. I think like you, you think about.

Places where have especially during the pandemic, right? We saw lots of digital nomad visas and communities popping up everywhere. And so places like Spain, Portugal, Thailand, which have really big digital nomad communities, you’re seeing lots and lots of alternative learning communities in those places as well.

Italy and Greece and other, and other regions too. And I mean, I think another thing too is homeschooling. Homeschooling is on the rise. Everywhere in the world, anywhere that has data. Homeschooling is happening more and more. And sometimes it’s really surprising how significant it is. And I think a lot of times, not a lot of times, but [00:07:00] sometimes this is how micro school is the inception of it, right?

It’s a homeschooler and then another homeschooling family and they’re doing a collective and then it grows to a couple of families and then the person says, ah, I should just turn this into a school. And so there’s also these kind of homeschool collectives, which kind of go hand in hand with digital nomad communities.

Then also, you know, people just wanting to know and I guess have control of what their kids are learning, so, so I think that’s a lot of things too. And then another reason we’re seeing micro school growth or chat about is, is from charitable organizations. You know, there’s, there’s the last couple of years we’ve hosted some really great orgs at our conference, and they’re, they’re creating micro schools and digital learning communities for climate refugees.

They’re being in slums refugee camps, even having online distance education for Afghani girls. Right. So we’ve had. Two years ago, we had the guy, he makes, uh, schools on boats. So they use [00:08:00] indigenous local knowledge. What’s happening with the climate? They build schools, they’re getting buy-in with the community to build boats based on what’ll work.

And then the school comes to them, picks the kids up at their doorstep. They go to school from the boat. Um, especially in places where they have lots of flooding and they’ve got playgrounds, they’ve got computer access, they’ve got a lot of different things that they’re doing. We even had this last year Teach the World Foundation and they’re doing two hour shifts and they’re teaching kids really basic reading math, and they’re, they’re in a lot of slums and rural areas in like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malawi.

Um. So and so, it’s really short, but it’s still teaching kids basic skills so that they can go back to caretaking, they can go back to work if they unfortunately have to. But but technology and I guess, you know, maybe a change of mindset or people trying to, uh, help people understand that there’s so many different ways to learn.

We all learn all the time, every way, not just sitting in a four walled classroom in a kind of conventional [00:09:00] setting. 

Tara: So interesting. I mean, I didn’t really know much about micro schools and it’s so exciting to hear that this is going on all over the world, that it’s really a global, uh, it’s a global movement.

Uh, your work supports families and educators launching and leading micros. Schools. What are some common reasons that families are choosing micro schools? Not just, I mean, you’ve talked about the legislation and those types of things, but beyond that you know, what are some other reasons that you’re seeing why families are opting for this?

Whitney: Yeah. I mean, right. I think it’s people that they, they really wanna know what’s happening within their kids. There’s also early adopters, you know, people that are early on the education entrepreneurship front. And so they’re really excited about, oh, what’s this new model of education? What does it look like?

Flip classroom, right? This is innovation. And then there’s, there’s a lot of families that. Traditional education didn’t work for them. Right. And maybe that’s ’cause of safety, accessibility, uh, [00:10:00] kids that were just really disengaged in their own classroom. And so I think. One of the big strengths is just due to the size micro schools are.

They promote a great sense of community and mm-hmm. It’s belonging naturally by their size. I think in some environments it feels like sort of extended family reunion kind of vibes more than it feels like a school. And so kids that, you know, they were really disconnected in their previous school and they needed something.

They needed more personalization, they needed closer relationships. You know, there’s just a lot of reasons that, I mean, perhaps there’s undertones of safety as well that we’ve seen in some areas where. Larger school environments just weren’t ideal for that child or that family. And I think, you know, oftentimes maybe it’s not all the family that opts into the micro school, maybe they just need it for one of the children, and then some of the other kids are going to a more conventional public or private school.

Mm-hmm. Um. And so, you know, it’s [00:11:00] those kind of families that, you know, they’re really, they’re early adopters or they’re having challenges within a traditional setting, and they’re willing to trade off the sort of things that micro schools don’t offer, right? Because they don’t really offer transportation.

They don’t have a big sports facility or sports teams or theater or necessarily things like that, but they’re, they are customized, right? So then they kind of say, okay. Well, I’m willing to trade this off because I know that my, my child gets really deep dive into things they’re curious about. They’re going at their own pace, whether they’re gifted and talented in certain subjects, or maybe they need more time to adapt because they’re, they’re just, that’s just not their strong suit.

So. So I think it’s, you know, and there’s, sorry, sorry, Terry. Continue. No, 

Tara: it’s okay. No, I was gonna say, I mean, I think, I mean, that’s similar to, you know, families who put some of their children in public schools and, and independent schools for reasons that, that that’s what they need. How I, I’m wondering, you know, we’ve talked about the movement and how it’s grown and the reasons why [00:12:00] and why families would choose, but how do families even find.

Find micro schools and and differentiate between a micro school and the private school in their neighborhood. How do they, is it becoming more well known among certain, in certain countries more than others, or how do, how are they even discovering it? Is it a Google search? Um, is it a word of mouth through their, you know, their local community, their church, their, something like that?

Where, where are people, how are they finding them? 

Whitney: Yeah, I mean that’s, that’s part of the challenge, right? Because they’re small schools with limited marketing budgets, so they, they have to form tight-knit relationships within the community. So that’s, you know, talking to other feeder schools, maybe faith-based institutions, making relationships with that pediatricians.

We’ve had micro schools that just go around the area and are knocking on doors to let people know we’re here, we’re in the area. And I mean, I think that’s one of the reasons we started the Micro schools network was because we said we wanted to find a resource for parents to [00:13:00] find out about the model, to learn about it, to potentially locate one.

And so we have a great resource now where we have, um, more than 200 schools. We have a map, you can search it out. And so we’re the biggest search engine directory for micro schools. I mean, at least that I know of. So that’s one way. And I think, I think in the US is probably. I would say leading the pack in terms of micro schools that are available.

But some places you go to, like Portugal and Spain, they’ve got so many different school types as well that I think they’re well attuned to having a, a different, um, a variety of things. But I think it’s still, you know, it’s still. We still need our own PR campaign. Right? Because I think there’s some misconceptions about what the schools are if people even know about it, right.

So, so I think that there is, yeah, there’s a lot of work to understand. And as far as differentiation, I mean differentiation between like a private school, independent [00:14:00] school versus a micro school, sometimes it’s really hard to. Decipher what one is. And I think some private schools are also saying, oh, we’re, we’re micro schools now.

And some micro schools are trying to say that they’re, uh, fully private. And so yeah, there, there’s certainly overlap and. I think that you just have to really, you know, you have to do your research as a parent to understand what’s happening. How big is the classroom? What does their curriculum look like, how are they reporting the evidence and data of learning?

And, and, and if you’re okay with them doing that, you know, and, and their approach to doing so then, you know, so I think there’s a lot of work from a consumer standpoint. I think anytime you’re looking at any kind of schools, right, from public, private, micro schools, whatever you’re evaluating to find out what’s important to you and how it fits into what your goals are, what your kids’ needs are.

Aubrey: That’s fascinating. I thank you so much for sharing. I’m just thinking like, it’s almost like, and if you’re a micro school, you have like double like the [00:15:00] marketing work. Like you have to talk to people about what micro schools are and then like your differentiator, right. 

Whitney: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. There’s certainly an education piece about, you know, trying to convince people on the values of, of why that might be a great fit for your family.

Because, you know, we kind of were, we’re indoctrinated for a long time, maybe that’s not the right word, but anyway, that bigger is better. The more, the more, and so, and then it’s like, yes, in some ways that’s really good, but some, but some families, there’s some kids that they, they really don’t thrive in that big of an environment and so that’s why there’s.

There’s, you know, I feel like it’s a really huge fracturing and segmentation of all these different needs, whether it’s faith-based schools, farm schools, forest schools, eco hubs, schools that are LGBT friendly schools that are offering like really entrepreneurship, streaks, schools that are more like a.

You know, WeWork kind of experienced nine to six open year round. Your kid comes and goes as they please, they go through the curriculum. [00:16:00] So it’s just there. I feel like there’s a flavor for everyone. Maybe not necessarily in your community, but you know, there, it’s available, it’s out there. 

Aubrey: I love that. I think, you know, as we as people are different schools need to be different, right?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, so thank you for sharing that. Um, I’m curious, like, we’ve talked a lot about, you know, independent private schools, um, and micro schools, and the, the majority of our listeners are probably independent and private school leaders, you know, so as they’re, they’re listening to this, I’m, I’m curious, and you did share.

A lot of this during your small school leaders conference presentation, which I was wowed by like in your view, it was a really good presentation. Like how do you think, you know, micro schools and independent schools could collaborate or learn from one another? Like are there areas of alignment or shared goals or ways that they can come together?

Whitney: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there’s total alignment, right? Because they’re serving [00:17:00] students, they’re serving their community of learners. Everyone’s in it for, for, for teaching kids, right? And so I always, I always think like, well, we don’t necessarily need to be competitors, right? ’cause we’re doing different things.

And I think, I think micro schools from an independent or private school standpoint. They can really learn a lot more about their approach to ongoing improvement, data collection, marketing and retention efforts. You know, micro schools often will struggle staying open past the five-year mark, and so hearing from historic institutions.

Independent schools that have been in the community for 20 plus years, I mean, on their highs and lows and different governing structures that they had to go through. And there’s so much wisdom that, that these older schools have to teach. And I think the, um, more established independent or private schools, I think there’s, there’s a lot of there’s a great potential to reach new markets through micro schools and through partnerships and collaborations.

Right? I mean, [00:18:00] we’ve seen. Facility partnerships, right? So micro schools have the access to be able to use theaters and sports facilities and things like that. We’ve seen programs that private schools are launching to serve, like homeschooling communities or micro schools so that the kids have a, you know, maybe it’s like STEM Fridays, or we have this club that we’re trying to do, or they have afterschool care, which micro schools often don’t, O don’t offer.

So it’s like maybe you want additional kids coming into your afterschool program. That’s another sense of revenue that micro schools can either reach out to independent schools or vice versa. Right. And then I’ve also seen micro schools, excuse me, independent or international schools think about, okay, well maybe, maybe we, maybe we hop on the bandwagon and we try and pilot something that’s directed for gifted and talented program.

Or maybe we have something like really specialized little program that’s for kids with learning diff differences. And so, and we’ve also seen school within schools too. [00:19:00] Because of the flexibility that they offer. Right. Some sort of hybrid environment. So you have the private schools, maybe you have super competitive athletes that are gonna have an attendance issue with the way that they’re currently, you know, their schedules are aligned.

But if we have a school within a school, so that. So that the kids can, can participate in the big school events, but they can also participate on their own time flexibly. Then you can serve a whole other group of learners that maybe you hadn’t thought of. And so I think there’s, there’s just a lot of opportunities.

I mean. We even saw boarding schools that started to offer micro schools for staff retention because they didn’t have, you know, a, a smaller kid program. So we have a little micro school and have a little micro school on campus. We’re able to serve. Our staff kids, and they can do this. And especially ’cause a lot of, a lot of times boarding schools are, you know, in, they’re beautiful locations, but they’re not necessarily close to a lot of other public or [00:20:00] private options.

So there’s, there’s just, there’s just a lot of there’s a lot of resources and opportunities and, and things that, that I think both, both micro schools and. Conventional schools can learn from. And there’s also, I mean, there’s big public schools that are starting to look at this too. They’re, they’re doing, um, they’re doing really differentiated segments within their districts, specifically, like, kind of like charter schools, right?

The idea of charter schools in terms of, we were having these sports academies and music academies, and that was, I think, the initial idea. For the charter school movement. And then people kind of said, well, we really expect this to be like a conventional school environment. And then charter schools kind of said, well, we, we also have to adapt to that.

And so they kind of moved to a more, uh, conventional learning environment with when their initial idea was really to be innovative and to be a lot more like micro schools. So, so yeah, there’s a, there’s a lot of opportunities for, for partnerships within the space. [00:21:00] 

Tara: Yeah, it makes total sense. Uh, looking ahead, what predictions do you have for the micro school landscape, uh, this year and beyond, and, and what do you think school leaders both traditional and alternative, uh, should be paying attention to?

Whitney: I mean, um, I think that, you know, anywhere that they decide to have public funding for private education, you’re gonna see. Big micro school growth, right? I mean, Texas just voted on a voucher system, which, you know, it’s the, I think, second most populated state in the country. So that’s gonna really shake things up.

So anytime that you see that, um. And I think there’s also gonna be more segmenting of school types. There’s, you know, sometimes I hear from parents where they’re saying, oh, I’m looking at all these schools and everything sounds the same. How do I even distinguish what’s this? And are they paying lip service to this and that?

And so I think micro schools are really trying to differentiate [00:22:00] themselves on the landscape, and I think that that’s what other public, private and micro schools will, will have to do to stay competitive within the, within the market. And I think another thing too to look out for is additional partnerships.

Partnerships, like we just mentioned. Right? So many opportunities within the private and and public space as well. And so, I mean there’s orgs like getting smart, transcend. Education reimagine, stand together trust. And they’re facilitating micro school growth too. Like they’re, they’re, they just pushed out a micro school financing program where you can get loans for, I can’t remember, up to $75,000, something like that.

But they’re also pub, they’re also pushing for community hub arrangements so that they can provide transport to different micro schools every morning to different communities. Or they’re able to provide afterschool care, maybe maybe taking them to Boys and Girls Club, or a private school that’s offering it, or a public school.

[00:23:00] So there’s a lot more, I think partnerships happening at a local level that are gonna be coming down the pipeline. And I think. You know, the sooner that everyone starts thinking about building partnerships, the better they’re going to be positioned for the future and how to, because you can, you can reach so many different markets of parents and different different ideologies and things that maybe you hadn’t thought about was a, a persona or profile for you, but maybe they, maybe they are the right person, but maybe you also need a partnership to kind of get them in the door.

Aubrey: That’s really interesting. Thank you for sharing. I, you know, I, I love you’re painting the picture of so many possibilities and I think it’s, it’s very interesting to see what’s gonna happen in the future because so much is changing now. So just like you mentioned, I mean, 10 years ago, I don’t think I knew what a micro school was, even maybe like seven years ago.

It wasn’t like a widely known and talked about term. So, thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that. 

Whitney: Yeah, and it’s, [00:24:00] you know, it’s funny, like we even see micro schools that don’t wanna use the word school because of the mental model of what that comes from historically. And like, you know, the, you know, intergenerational ideology and what, and so, you know, it’s kind of like.

People are, people are rethinking education in so many different ways. And so I think there’s, there’s great possibilities for, for everyone. And I, I really think it’s like a renaissance, a renaissance of education in some way, and maybe technology’s enabling it. I mean, absolutely it’s tech. Technology’s enabling it.

But also I think, right, you know, as AI advances and machine learning becomes so much more adept, we, we need to grow better humans, right? And so that’s kind of perhaps where education will go. 

Aubrey: Fascinating. This is actually a great, that was a great sentence to lead us to our next question, which is, you know, we’re, we talk about our podcast, we talk about mindfulness and that’s part of, you know, who we are and what we value.

And I’m [00:25:00] curious, like, as you are thinking about micro schools and also the work that you do with micro schools, how would you define mindfulness and how do you see it lived out? 

Whitney: I think that. Micro schools is really as far as mindfulness goes. And so part of the work that we’re, we always try to do is create community, right?

And I think it’s taking care of ourselves, taking care of our learners, and taking care of our community, right? Because we’re, we’re hopefully finding, we’re finding a need within the community and filling it through the education, but at the same time, you know, our school founders, they’re wearing so many hats, right?

Maybe they’re traditional educators who came in with grand ideas, and then all of a sudden it’s like, oh, actually I have to figure out how to do 401k and fix the toilet and choose all the curricula for next year, and then do PD later today, and a school tour that’s all on my list in the next two hours.

Right. [00:26:00] So, so creating a support network for those founders and to, to be able to build community for, for inspiration at your school for collaboration partnerships, but for commiseration too, right? Because it’s really hard being a small business owner, and so I think mindfulness. From our sense is really trying to cultivate community support one another.

You know, we’re not coming from a competitive space. I, I really feel like the more options that are out there, the better it’s gonna be for families, the better it’s gonna be for, for what kind of future we can imagine educationally for our kids too. So, so building community, that’s, that’s what we’re all about.

Tara: I love that. I’m so, I’m, I’m so excited by this conversation. It’s, I love the breadth of different types of micro schools that are out there too. It’s not just, you know, you can’t really stereotype it. So I appreciate learning more about it from that [00:27:00] perspective. We’re gonna move on to rapid fire questions now.

Um, and the first one is, if you could put one book as mandatory reading in the high school curriculum, what would it be? 

Whitney: It’s such a hard question. It’s like, there, there’s, there’s so many great books. I, I think, I think 1984, it’s still, I mean it’s still in a lot of required reading, but then there’s also some book bands happening.

But I think, you know, it’s never more prevalent for developing critical thinking. The idea Big Brother is. Ever present now with technology, with so many different things happening. So I think it’s still a classic. That should be mandatory. Thank 

Aubrey: you. Um, and we’ll add that to our Good Reads list. Um, we have one for the podcast.

So what is one app you can’t live without? 

Whitney: It’s, I, it’s nothing, it’s nothing amazing. It’s Google Maps. It’s, I’m literally, I, I don’t know how I traveled the world being the worst person at directions. [00:28:00] So I, I live and die by then. I mean, you guys probably remember MapQuest, printing out directions, MapQuest, and then the minute that it derails and you’re like, oh, where am I?

What’s happening? So this is something I need. I mean, it’s nothing cool or cutting edge, but it’s. It’s necessity for me for life. 

Tara: We’ve heard that one a few times actually. What are you reading right now? 

Whitney: I’m one of those people who have like a million books on my, on my nightstand. I’m really enjoying this Ikigai book by Ken Mogie.

And it’s talking, you know, it has a lot of cultural aspects of Japan, but also, you know, the motivation to do what you’re good at, what gets you up in the morning, what impacts your life. So I’m, I’m, I’m enjoying that. I’m also reading the Survivors Club for a, a book club that I’m in. Yeah, those are, those are two good ones.

The survivor’s Club has like all kinds of different situations and how you would adapt to them and, and things like that. Maybe a [00:29:00] sort of apocalypse toolkit, kind of, kind of vibe. And what was the other one? Uh, it’s called Ikigai by Ken. Oh, okay. Yeah, probably remember the um, Venn diagram. Sometimes they represent it that way of like what you’re good at, what you’re interested in and what’s your calling.

So. It’s kind of the intersection of all of those. 

Aubrey: Fascinating. Those sound like really amazing books. 

Whitney: Um, it’s just like your logo, the easy School marketing. That’s your Iki guy, Aubrey. 

Aubrey: It’s, it’s, it’s funny. Okay. Well what is one great piece of advice you’d like to leave us with? 

Whitney: Well, um, you know, I think that.

There’s, you know, there’s a renaissance in education happening right now, and it’s from ai, from entrepreneurship through micro schools, big tech shifts that are happening, and so I think it’s, I think it’s just a great time [00:30:00] for, for school leaders, for people that are working in schools that are advising schools because.

Founders have a lean budget, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have big aspirations. And some of these schools we’ve seen have start within four years time. Uh. Went from one campus to 60, went from one campus to 12 countries. So, I mean, there’s just huge explosions and there’s an international appetite for it too.

And so I think that you know, the only thing that is limiting us now is just our own thoughts and our own ideology about what education is and, and our own kind of capacity to do so. So I think it’s just a really great time to think about all the possibilities for kids in the future. Thank 

Tara: you so much.

Aubrey: Where can people find you and learn more about micro schools and what you do as well? 

Whitney: Yeah, come to micro schools.com and check out the [00:31:00] website. We have, we just launched a training program we’re super excited about. It’s a dual certificate program with Harvard. We’re partnering with Harvard Graduate School of Education and so we’re, we’re getting basically the boat best of both worlds entrepreneurship and also really great instructional leadership.

So, so come out and check us out there. You can look up. You can find all kinds of different micro schools all around the world. You can check out our training program. We do webinars on best practice and yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. You can find meWhitney@microschools.com. And yeah, I’d love to hear from you.

Aubrey: And you have a newsletter too, right? Because I, I received something for you and I love it. ’cause I read it. That’s where I learned about the Harvard thing and I was like, oh, this is amazing. 

Whitney: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Absolutely. Yep. On our website, micro schools.com, you can sign up for our newsletter and that comes out a couple of times a month.

And so we talk about, and the thing I try and culminate lots of different research and events that are happening all across, like the world micro school [00:32:00] spaces. There’s, I mean this isn’t ours, but like there’s a really great, um. Expert advice from our colleagues in the UK on progressive education on how to launch an online school.

And they have really successful online entrepreneur schools that are gonna be there talking about, and you can pick their brain. So it’s that kind of stuff we’re trying to culminate. So people have lots of ideas and thoughts and, and they can know about different, different stuff that’s happening all around the world.

Aubrey: That’s awesome. And before we log off, I did wanna give you a shout out from one conference organizer to another. You recently had your micro schools, uh, conference and in Washington DC. Right. So, yeah. Um, congratulations. 

Whitney: Thank you. You know, however big or small it is, it’s, it’s a lot of work. So, yeah, absolutely.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. 

Aubrey: and thank you for being here with us today. Thank 

Whitney: you so 

Tara: much. Yes, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Have a great day.

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