Keeping up a good education while learning the ways of the ocean

Education is essential for the development of children in numerous ways. When sailing the ocean, however, making sure you get the knowledge and skills you need becomes a challenge. Luckily for Mazarine, who joined her family on Deo Juvante at 10 years old, the experience of partial homeschooling and joining schools across the world proved to be enriching. 

Having left Belgium for the open water in 2019, Mazarine’s childhood differed greatly from the traditional image. When it comes to education, she had the privilege as well as the task of learning with an ever-changing backdrop. “We learned to navigate a different way of schooling and the seas at the same time. Traveling the world by yacht isn’t for the faint of heart. But it’s one of the most incredible experiences you can have”, Mazarine shares, having loaded her backpack of knowledge with regular course material while also being a proved engineer aboard Deo Juvante.

Along with her brother Clement, Mazarine moved from school to school depending on the destination of their floating home. With a semester at school in Tahiti, a year spent in a New Zealand high school, homeschooling throughout the Pacific, and a semester in a Balinese international school, they have learnt more of other cultures as teenagers than most people will know in a lifetime.

A year at a public school in Fukuoka, Japan, immersed Mazarine and Clement fully in the local culture and language. “It was the most memorable time. I can’t imagine a place where schools are so organized and friendly as they are in Japan. We made so many friends, who welcomed us into their lives and shared the beauty of their country with us. It was hard leaving them behind, as it always is.”

That is indeed the flip side of the story. Joining a new school and getting used to the way the school works and the students behave isn’t easy, as Mazarine affirms: “Once you get used to it, the school year is over and you have to say goodbye to your new friends and teachers. That’s the hardest part. Although I had many friends at the different schools I went to, I had to leave them behind. Fortunately, modern technology allows me to stay in touch as much as possible. My time in Japan and at the other schools I've been to are some of the best moments of my life, and I will always cherish them.”

Mazarine concludes that the greatest benefits have come from discovering the wide array of people who inhabit the world: “I would say my greatest discovery is meeting people from so many different cultures, with each their own unique personalities.”