Some decisions about a child’s education are not made overnight. They grow out of an accumulation of small perceptions, conversations, and concerns that slowly develop until they become clarity. That was the case for Ana Carolina, mother of nine-year-old Ana Lis and thirteen-year-old Otávio.
The family is from Pernambuco and lives in São Paulo. Their path to Acutis Academy is one many Catholic families will recognize. We spoke with her about that journey, and what follows is the account of that experience in her own words.
A Particular Story
Ana Carolina’s children did not have an ordinary school journey, and it is impossible to understand the family’s choices without knowing where they began.
For several years, Ana Lis lived with a genetic condition that was considered incurable. Frequent hospitalizations made schooling nearly impossible, and Ana Carolina found herself taking on roles no mother imagines having to carry all at once. “Our whole reality meant that I had to follow every area of her life very closely—as her doctor, nurse, teacher, friend, and mother.” Ana Lis attended school for the first time only at seven and a half years old.
Otávio, her older brother, spent much of his childhood physically apart from his parents because of his sister’s situation, while attending a traditional school. In 2026, the family was finally able to bring him home, and he began studying online.
Today, she says, “my children’s education is part of our home routine in a much more present way than before.”
The Concern That Kept Growing
Ana Carolina is careful not to portray the previous experience as a disaster. “I don’t like looking back at the previous experience as if everything had been bad, because it wasn’t.” But something began to trouble her, and it did not come from the teachers.
It came from classmates. There was “a certain amount of bullying because of her more ‘fervent’ religiosity,” and her daughter could not fit in. What had once been a dream—going to school—turned into constant tears.
It was during this period that a larger realization took shape, and she puts it in a way that sums up the turning point:
“I began to understand that education is not only about learning Portuguese, Mathematics, or Science. Education also shapes the way a child thinks, their values, their worldview, and even what they understand about themselves.”Ana Carolina
There was no single decisive episode. “For me, it was more an accumulation of small perceptions.” It was the increasingly clear sense that “what was being lived there did not always correspond to the formation we were trying to live at home.”
The Fear of Having to Choose
When she began considering the change, Ana Carolina faced the doubts practically every family encounters before a decision like this. She lists them without romanticizing them:
“Will she learn? Will I be able to handle this routine? Will she adapt to online classes? Will she regret it and miss traditional school?”Ana Carolina
There was also a concrete concern: Ana Lis had a full scholarship, and, in her mother’s words, there was the fear of “giving up this opportunity and having no way back.” There was also the question of socialization after so many years in which her daughter had spent most of her time only with her mother and healthcare professionals.
But beneath all of this was a deeper concern, perhaps the one that resonates most with the families Acutis serves. She felt she was being pushed toward a choice she did not want to make:
“I didn’t want to choose between a strong academic education and a strong human and spiritual formation.”Ana Carolina
And overcoming precisely that false choice defined everything that came afterward.
“When I Realized I Wouldn’t Have to Choose”
Ana Carolina discovered Acutis in a simple way: an internet search for a Catholic school. She began studying how the classes worked, the curriculum, and, above all, the vision of education behind the project.
The moment she thought, “this is it,” had everything to do with the false choice that had been troubling her:
“When I realized I wouldn’t have to choose between academic formation and Catholic formation. When I saw that Acutis was a school that understood something essential to our family: parents are the first people responsible for their children’s education, and the school needs to walk alongside the family, not in a direction contrary to it.”Ana Carolina
The final reassurance came from a conversation with the Sisters of Hesed, who gave the family references for Acutis and Professor Edmilson. “That was when the fear that still remained went away.”
The First Weeks—and the Surprise
Ana Lis took a trial class and loved it. What remained afterward was the practical work of any new beginning: understanding schedules, organizing materials, creating a routine, and teaching her how to use the equipment and apps. Little by little, what had seemed completely new became normal at home.
Then came a surprise that matters to every family concerned about the online format:
“One of the things that surprised me was realizing how much a child can form a real bond even in an online class when there is a teacher who is truly present.”Ana Carolina
Ana Carolina also did not expect how closely she would begin following what her daughter learns—to the point of learning alongside her: “I learned to recite the Psalms.”
The Brother Who Does Not Want to Go Back
Otávio’s case deserves separate attention because it addresses a specific fear: that an older child, already accustomed to another model, may not adapt.
He joined six months after his sister, when Ana Carolina already felt certain. He came with eleven years of traditional schooling behind him, and she feared he would not adjust. The result was the opposite: “today Acutis is already part of his routine, and he doesn’t want to leave Acutis and go back to traditional school.”
Both children, their mother says, live the normal life of any student. “They know their teachers, know their schedules, have subjects they like more and subjects they like less, just like any student.”
What Changed at Home
When asked what changed, Ana Carolina points to something that goes beyond grades:
“Today I know what they are studying. I can talk with them about a class, notice a difficulty, celebrate an achievement, and follow their development more closely.”Ana Carolina
In Ana Lis, she sees “peace,” greater autonomy, and a different relationship with learning. In Otávio, she sees “more responsibility and closeness to God.” Above all, she notices a coherence that had been missing before:
“And I really like seeing that there is consistency between what we try to teach at home, what she lives in the Church, and what she finds at school. She doesn’t have to live as though there were two different worlds: the world of faith and the world of study.”Ana Carolina
She is equally frank about herself and careful not to idealize the experience. It takes work and requires organization and presence. “I don’t want to romanticize this,” she says. But it helped her understand in practice that “my children’s education is my responsibility,” and that the school “is an extremely important partner; teachers play a huge role, but none of them replaces the parents.” Today, she summarizes, “I participate much more.”
A Clarification She Insists on Making
There is a common misunderstanding about this model of education, and Ana Carolina made a point of addressing it because it had been one of her own fears:
“When people talk about this model of education, some imagine that parents need to know how to teach every subject or take the teacher’s place. That has not been our experience, and it is not the proposal either. I am still the mother. There are teachers, there are classes, there is a curriculum, and there is a school. What changed is that now I can be closer.”Ana Carolina
For her, this is one of the greatest riches of the experience: “not simply handing my children’s education over to someone, but finding people who will walk with us in educating them.”
How Ana Lis Was Welcomed
Ana Carolina saved for the end what may matter most to her of all. It has to do with who Ana Lis is.
Ana Lis has a speech difficulty and is very shy in everyday life, though someone who sees her evangelizing or recording videos about the faith might never imagine it. “There is almost a contrast between Aninha in missions and evangelization, who finds the courage to speak about God, and Ana Lis in everyday life, who often needs time to feel safe and express herself.”
It is here that the school’s welcome proved most precious to her mother:
“The teachers respect her pace, are patient in listening to her, do not make her speech difficulty a barrier to participation, and do not put her on the spot because of her shyness. She has room to answer, ask questions, participate, and be who she is.”Ana Carolina
For a mother who accompanied her child for so many years through hospitals and limitations, and who later received, in her words, “from God the grace of a healing that completely transformed our life,” seeing her daughter take her place carries a value she makes a point of naming:
“Acutis did not need to make Ana Lis stop being shy for her to belong. She belongs exactly as she is.”Ana Carolina
And she concludes with a definition of inclusion that needs no commentary:
“For me, inclusion is also this: not looking first at a child’s difficulties, but recognizing who the child is, respecting their pace, and allowing everything God placed within them to flourish.”Ana Carolina
What She Would Say to Someone Who Is Unsure
At the end of our conversation, we asked her to speak directly to someone who is now where she once was. Her answer serves both as advice and summary:
“I would say: don’t make a decision driven only by fear. Learn about the possibilities. For a long time, we grew up believing there was only one way to educate a child, but there are other paths. Talk with families who already live this experience, understand the proposal, and ask the difficult questions.”Ana Carolina
And she leaves the question that, deep down, guided all of the family’s choices:
“Then think: what kind of person do I hope to help my child become? Because in the end, we are not only choosing where the child will study. We are also choosing who will walk with us during very important years of that child’s formation.”Ana Carolina
For Ana Carolina’s family, the answer to that question has a name—and a sentence she herself chose to summarize what Acutis came to represent:
“For us, Acutis represents an education in which faith does not need to be separated from knowledge, but illuminates everything our children learn and the people they are being called to become.”Ana Carolina
If Ana Carolina’s story resembles yours, discover Acutis Academy and see how we walk alongside each family.
Testimonial collected by Acutis Academy with the family’s authorization. The names are real, and the interview was edited for readability while preserving the interviewee’s words.
