This story is based on a conversation with Tara Vanderveer, 42, a remote teacher currently living in Antigua Guatemala. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve taught at colleges and universities, including a nursing faculty, for most of my adult life.
My passion is education, and I don’t think the traditional way we’ve always learned is the best approach. I reflect on my own schooling, and I realize I was a “successful” student because it was easy for me to memorize things.
I was attracted to other learning styles
I had an epiphany after graduation when I couldn’t get a job. I had a science degree, but I didn’t know how to apply it to a profession.
I made it to the second round of interviews for one position in a lab. They asked me to perform a procedure, and I couldn’t even take the right equipment from the shelf because I’d never seen it before.
Being able to write authoritative papers was all very well, but the practicalities were lost on me.
So, when I started teaching, I encouraged people to focus on the end goal and be hands-on. I wanted my kids — an 11-year-old, 8-year-old, and a set of 4-year-old twins — to learn in the same way, without placing too much emphasis on theory.
My kids studied volume while feeding milk to baby goats
It was never my intention for me to be their teacher. But COVID happened. The schools closed down, so I didn’t have much choice but to take the role, at least for the eldest two.
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Since then, it’s been a joy. In 2021, we lived on a farm in Canada for four months, and the kids learned about ounces and millimeters by preparing the milk for the baby goats.
Those informal classes would segue into nutrition and other topics. I created a curriculum based on their regular life and interests. The children got more excited and curious by the day.
The arrangement also gave us the opportunity to travel. It’s in our family DNA. I was something of a nomad growing up because my dad was in the Canadian Light Infantry, and we relocated every couple of years.
We couldn’t manage without local nannies
Since 2020, the kids and I have moved between Canada, the US, the Bahamas, Cuba, and Guatemala. We’re visiting Mexico City for the holidays before heading to Nicaragua in February.
There’s no way we could do this without employing local nannies to watch the children during the times of the day when I’m not schooling them.
The rest of the time, I continue my regular job of teaching high schoolers and college students online while pursuing my doctorate in education. It’s a hectic lifestyle.
It’s great to watch the kids learn languages, meet people from different cultures, and evolve in each new environment.
However, I worry about repeating some of the negative aspects that I experienced during my own childhood. People and places were often transient. I felt as if I could only share a certain depth of relationship with others before we — or they — moved away.
I’m concerned the kids don’t have roots
The kids enjoy making friends in each place, but how do you foster those connections to ensure they’re bonding on a meaningful level? The 11-year-old keeps in touch with them by playing chess online. It’s obviously not the same as being physically together.
Meanwhile, there is the question of not having roots. I can see it in my eldest. Someone will ask him, “Where are you from?” and he’ll look at me for guidance because he doesn’t really know.
But the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. We had to return to Canada between the fall of 2023 and the spring of 2024. The older children attended regular school for a change.
During those six months, we constantly discussed bullying, lockdowns, and boyfriends and girlfriends. We’d sit around the dinner table, and they wanted their own cellphones.
Today in Guatemala, we talk about nature, food, and animals. It feels so much healthier. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
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