It began with a few mothers and a long table.

Like most good things, Abiding Way began as a conversation that would not go away. A handful of mothers, each teaching at home, each doing well enough alone, kept circling the same thought: some parts of this education are meant to be shared. Shakespeare wants a room full of voices. Folk dance needs more than one pair of feet. A picture is easier to look at slowly when someone else is looking too.

So we set a day aside. We found a room. We divided the subjects between us according to what each of us could carry, and we began — imperfectly, and gladly.

What we did not expect was how much the mothers would need it. The children came for Shakespeare and handicrafts. The mothers came for those too, and stayed for the company of women who understood why a morning could be ruined by a bad reading and saved by a good one.

We remain small on purpose. A cottage school is not an institution; it is a household that meets on Wednesdays.