What first attracted me to Acton more than 3 years ago were two simple things: self-paced learning and hands-on projects. That was what jumped out and caught my attention. But, now, after having been through nearly two academic years of running an Acton Academy in Taipei, I find that there is so much more to it than that. The technology and the projects are wonderful, but they are not the “magic sauce” that has propelled Acton Academy to launch more than 200 campuses worldwide. It’s actually something much simpler: the narrative of the Hero’s Journey. I have seen a radical transformation in my own daughter as she has re-framed herself as a Hero who is not afraid of doing hard things.
Lauren Quinn, another Acton owner, wrote this wonderful article that captures exactly what makes Acton so special and such a wonderful place for children to grow.
“In the absence of coercive pedagogy, the right narrative is essential in guiding young people along the path of self-directed learning, towards the version of themselves that says, “I want to get better”, and thus confidently sets out to do so.”
Lauren goes on to describe how the Hero’s Journey narrative that runs through everyday, every session, every year at Acton has changed her own son’s outlook and re-ignited that passion for learning she always knew was still there. She also describes how, more recently, the students at her Acton Academy have easily continued their learning during the pandemic without skipping a beat, not because of their familiarity with online learning, but because they are self-directed Heroes in charge of their own destinies.
“He spent three uneventful years in a traditional classroom until I decided the dimming light in his eyes was event enough to pull him out of school and start my own. Two years later, he is unrecognizable from that child I saw then. Alive with the light of learning, I find his poetry and song lyrics scattered around the house, his newest inventions taking up residence in the garage, and I hear his “stop me in my tracks” revelations and musings on life whenever he cares to share- which is frequently. He is the hero in his own story, and the same is true for my younger son and the two dozen other young learners at The Village School who’ve embraced the adventure of self-directed learning. They have allowed me to learn alongside them, proving to me every day just how capable and remarkable young people are. And yet, while I’ve always known this, nothing has made this clearer than watching each of them find their footing and continue on, bravely, in the midst of a world turned upside down.”