School of JoySeven years ago, we were two parents looking for one single thing.
A place our child would go to with joy, not out of obligation.
We searched. We didn't find it.
We saw schools that measure children through grades and pit them against each other, at ages when they should simply be playing. We saw schedules starting at 7 a.m. leaving less and less room for curiosity. We saw the word "bullying" far too often where "friendship" should have been.
What we wanted was something else: an education that promotes collaboration, not competition. Children who grow into leaders, not followers — people who think for themselves rather than blindly follow what they're told. Flexibility, so families can breathe. And above all, respect — for yourself and your limits, for the other, for the environment we live in.
We didn't find that place. So we built it ourselves.
Today, School of Joy is a real house — 240 m², next to the Făget forest, with a garden the children tend with their own hands. We go into the woods often. We study rocks and plants, we learn what nature offers and how to manage with it. Not because "the book says so", but because it's where we, as parents, wish we had spent our own childhood.
We're still here, seven years later, because it works. Not perfectly — nothing involving people is perfect — but authentically, every single day.