Colleen Hroncich
Although she had a long career teaching in public schools, Genevieve Hinnant saw that her kids needed something else. Her third-grade daughter had developed standardized testing anxiety. Her gifted fifth-grade son ended up on a tier-two behavior plan. “I was like, whoa, what is going on?” she recalls.
Genevieve pulled them out and put them in a small Montessori microschool. As she was commuting from the farm they’d bought outside of Nashville to her principal job in the city, she saw her kids flourishing with project-based learning, travel, and a small community. Meanwhile, her Title I school was getting results on paper, but the kids—inundated with worksheets, tests, and test prep—weren’t happy.
She realized she also needed something else.
Genevieve joined the KaiPod Catalyst program and received a scholarship from the Black Wildflower Fund for Montessori training. She now knew what she wanted to do. She created her own school, Arbor Learning Lab, which combines Montessori, project-based learning, and an emphasis on the outdoors. Buying the farm had changed her family’s life. She wanted that for other kids, too.
When she started advertising, a woman reached out. She ran Bloomsbury Farm School, a pre‑K through fifth-grade program on a 400-acre farm outside Nashville. She had fifth graders with nowhere to go for middle school. She wanted to chat.
It was a fruitful conversation. Arbor Learning Lab now operates on Bloomsbury Farm, serving grades six through twelve in an 800-square-foot loft with no heating. “It’s kind of like we’re nature/forest as well as Montessori,” she explains. Kids come ready for whatever the weather may bring.
“We have an extremely inclusive, diverse group of kids. Fifty percent of our kids are black, 50 percent are white. They come from all different economic levels. And then about 70 percent of our students are neurodiverse,” says Genevieve. “It’s a beautiful community.”
Days start at 8:30 with open play, when kids run, scream, build forts, and play on the playground. “People think that middle school and high school don’t need free play, but that is so not true. They need to get that energy out,” Genevieve explains.
After a community meeting and some structured games, it’s time to get to work. They start with an open work cycle, which is a Montessori staple where kids choose what to work on and how. “We usually do a lot of interdisciplinary inquiry units,” says Genevieve. “Right now we’re starting one on happiness, based on The Happiness Project.” They generally wrap up their units with a big project where they showcase their understanding and mastery.
Afternoons include another Montessori staple called solo time, a 15-minute period during which the kids can do whatever they want as long as they’re silent. “They can reflect, they can write in their journals, they can do a puzzle, color, just sit, paint, all the things,” explains Genevieve. Afterwards, they jump into their afternoon work cycle or afternoon activity. “Sometimes it’s an outside agricultural focus. So we harvested vegetables, and then we sold them at the farmer’s market, and we sold out,” she adds.
On Fridays, they have a craft lab where they focus on handwork. Last fall, students spent two months creating holiday crafts to sell at a winter fair. They met with a gallery owner to learn about pricing, presentation, and what it means to understand and own your work. At the fair, they set up their displays, greeted customers, sold their work, and took it all down. They raised $700.
While the farm offers a lot, the students also get out into the world regularly. Every Tuesday, they go to a robotics center. Fridays often include field trips to museums or other locations in Nashville and around middle Tennessee.
One popular feature of Arbor Learning Lab is Third Thursdays, when “we just do game schooling,” says Genevieve. “We do pizza for lunch and students and their families, they bring in games that they want to do. There’s some, you know, just family games and then some like educational games, but everything is through games.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the kids were sad to miss school over Thanksgiving break, which pleases Genevieve.
Arbor Learning Lab runs four days a week, but families can choose a three-day, no Friday, option. Most families who start three days end up going four since the kids hear what the other kids do on Fridays. There are also virtual lessons on Monday mornings.
Genevieve would love to grow to serve more kids. She’s adding 5th grade next year since Bloomsbury Farm School is shifting and will end at 4th grade. But her vision is bigger than that. The Drexel Fund invited her to apply for a startup grant with a goal of growing to 150–200 students in grades five through twelve.
The farm owner is open to building on her property, but Genevieve doesn’t think the fire marshal will approve it. It’s the same problem microschools face everywhere—regulations designed for schools with hundreds of kids are enforced on programs serving fourteen.
Genevieve is also working to participate in Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarship program, but that requires being an approved private school. Arbor was accredited by Middle States in November as part of a pilot program for the accreditor’s new microschool track. But she also needs fire marshal approval. She’s trying to figure out her options.
Despite her struggles, Genevieve is enthusiastic about the possibilities. She encourages other would-be founders to tap into the growing networks like KaiPod and the National Microschooling Center. “Microschools are exploding,” she says. “I think it’s a perfect opportunity to get tapped in with the different communities and build community because the work can be lonely.”