Looking for Something Better

I grew up attending public schools in Auburn, Washington. By the time I finished these 13 years of schooling, I had learned how to get an A. Getting an A meant doing whatever the teacher wanted. Sometimes that meant learning, but most of the time teachers just wanted students to stay quiet and orderly, work on assignments, turn them in on time, and perform well on quizzes and tests. I could do it in any class and I found out that I rarely had to learn about the supposed "subject matter" to get an A.

I remember a clear epiphany in my senior year:

I was stuck here, would learn very little, jump through a lot of administrative hoops, have some fun with my friends, but ultimately accomplish almost nothing of lasting significance. What struck me was how society was okay with all this waste. So many young people chained to desks and outdated methods in the prime of their life.

I knew that it was a waste, but I did not know how to find or ask for something better.

Starting an Acton Academy

As I saw my children losing their curiosity and passion in the same system, I realized we had to change. As technology continues to accelerate I cannot possibly understand the specific problems my children will face, so I needed a system that prepared them to be generalists who can meet new and novel problems with excellence. At Citizens Academy, our goal is not high test scores, compliance, uniformity, or even IQ. Our learners will leave our schools one day and they will have learned how to learn anything, how to do and stick with real and difficult challenges, and how to be in community with great character and integrity. Most importantly, they will have discovered their own gifts and how to use those to change the world for good.

My Daughters Must Learn How to Learn

Humans are especially good at adapting and learning, but learning is a skill that must be honed like any other. Public and private schools have a small amount of acceptable methods of learning. Most of them involve high levels of rote memorization and sitting still for hours on end. Any experimentation or deviation must be carefully planned and approved at several levels.

Acton Academies gamify everything. We experiment constantly. We build games and learning adventures that work naturally with the human capacity to learn. We create an environment where learners can stay in their challenge zone and take breaks when they need to do so. Humans, especially young people, learn faster and more permanently this way, so why work against it? We use technology to provide every learner with a highly individualized learning plan and trust them to work on the things that they (and their parents) think is most important today.

One of the central promises our guides (we have no "teachers") make to our learners, is that they will not answer any questions. This means that in a very real way, the only adult in the room has given away much of their authority. When learners do ask questions, we ask them more questions to help them consider whether they should try to solve their problem in a new way on their own, grab a fellow traveler who has solved a similar problem recently, or find a system or framework for solving this kind of problem.

My Son Must Learn How to Do Difficult Things

In addition to learning how to learn, our young heroes also learn how to do useful things in the real world. Learning to get an A in a class prepared me to please a boss, which is not a useless skill. In fact, such a skill can lead you to be a mid-level manager. I had to hit the eject button on that path, though, because I saw every manager and supervisor around me afraid to take chances and address the problems we could all see around us. Rocking the boat too hard meant taking risks and anyone who failed was demoted or shown the door. So the best long-term strategy was to stay quiet and maintain the course.

But learning how to difficult things and becoming excellent requires failure. This change in mindset is emphasized everyday at Citizens Academy. We aren't avoiding failure, we are seeking to fail and learn and improve in everything we do. Our young learners hold town hall meetings every week where they tackle tough problems and propose new solutions. All the topics are chosen by the learners and they spend a lot of time trying to come up with a better way to do things. A growth mindset must be nurtured and practiced over years in order to reap the benefits in one's life; Citizens Academy is where to put in the hard work.

My Family Must Have Unquestionable Character and Integrity

In a world driven and curated by bots, AI, fake news, and oligarchic algorithms, we have recommitted to basic principles. We have covenants that we sign and uphold throughout the year. Any successful culture has clear expectations and benefits for its members. We spend an entire 6-week session building that culture at the beginning of the year. We spend the rest of the year honing and perfecting the studio, constantly asking,

"How can we make this better? "

"How could we get even more done?"

"What could we do to make this a place that enables everyone who comes through the door to discover their calling and change the world for good?"

As a student in public schools, the only time I got to practice this stuff without a teacher managing the relationships was during recess and in the halls and at lunch. I learned a lot of lessons during those times, but it was rarely a good sustainable lesson that I could take into the rest of my life or other communities to effect positive change.

Our Community is Calling

Will you answer the call? Will your family and young child face the unknown of non-traditional school in order to light his or her fire and passion for learning for the rest of their life? Or is a life of quiet compliance good enough? Only you and your family can know the answer to these questions. If you're ready to take a step of faith and try something new and better, start your audition or schedule an information session today.