The latest educational trend in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay is homeschooling, though not by choice. In early May, a three-alarm fire forced Inheritance Christian Academy out of its classrooms in Emmanuel Episcopal Church, and ever since, the school of fifteen students has relied upon the generosity of congregants. Nina Weiss, Elle magazine’s editorial production coordinator, has been letting teachers hold classes in her one-bedroom apartment. “The ninth-grade boys meet in my living room, and the sixth-grade boys meet in my breakfast nook,” says Weiss, who’s friends with some faculty members. And Weiss says the perks outweigh the inconvenience of things like bins of smoke-scented books and extra tables and chairs cluttering her space. “The students fixed a leak in my bathroom the other day, and when I went out of town, they watered my plants,” she says. Weiss’s only rule: “The boys aren’t allowed in my bedroom.” —Emma Rosenblum
