On September 17, 1787 the founding fathers of the United States of America signed the Constitution declaring a list of fundamental principles for how our American country would run. Just like heroes Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, our Acton heroes drafted, debated, edited, discussed, and yesterday on October 3, 2024 ratified their Acton constitution also known as Studio Promises/Contract. One by one learners reviewed their studio contract and just like the founding fathers they used a feather pen to sign their name. Whether 4 or 12 years old the Acton contract creation is a thrill, it is an opportunity to be part of something great, part of a community of heroes that honors and respects the heroic journey of learning to learn, learning to do, and learning to be.

What gift do you bring to the pot? I bring….love in the form of a carrot, laughter in the form of a beet, curiosity as garlic, friendship as a pepper, leadership as celery, dance and art as potatoes, kindness as green beans, adventure as a potato, gymnastics as onions, empathy as black pepper, silliness as broth, and the list goes on and on. With great joy and pride every learner in our Acton village named and placed their symbolic gift in our village pot of Stone Soup. Each villager watched with amazement as learners shared their special ingredient that makes Acton delicious!

You are on your way to the Adventure Studio at Acton. With each step into the basement underworld the sun dims and the sound grows more quiet. You meet the base of the steps, you enter a sea of black, and as your eyes begin to adjust you suddenly notice a small flickering light. This light is a path. You follow the path and stop at what appears to be a make-shift door. You hear quiet voices and wonder, is there anyone inside? You politely say “Hello, is anyone here?” Suddenly, a friendly head pops out of the home and says “Hi, welcome to our gnome home, would you like to come in?” With great wonder you enter. What seemed impossibly small is in fact a spacious gnome mansion full of twinkling lights, cozy blankets, an abundance of furniture, and a group of joyful gnomes working on projects. This is their happy home and they are joyfully ready to give you a tour!

Back in 2020 when our Acton school was just beginning we were gifted a gorgeous rainbow owl painting by a founding parent. It was this magical painting and the idea of the “O” alliteration of Oshkosh Owls that inspired our owl school mascot that we proudly love today. Our choice was simple. Little did we realize that owls symbolize wisdom, intuition, knowledge, protection, and mystery. Owls guide people to see beyond the obvious. This is the role of our young learners, they are our guides that inspire growth. What is a group of owls called? A parliament. Truly, we lucked out with our mascot. There couldn’t be a better word to honor our Acton process of learners being trusted to govern their learning and build their community nest.

“Alexander the Great was 20 years old when he conquered the world. Joan of Arc, 17 when she began her crusade; Ben Franklin 13 when he first apprenticed. At Acton Academy, we believe our young too will change the world, sooner than most can imagine.”

— Jeff Sandefer, Acton Academy co-founder

This first week of school I witnessed a courageous 4 year old walk into Acton. As her mother hesitated at the car door this learner proudly walked into school, shook my hand, opened the door, and said yes to the journey. This brave learner needed no help, had no confusion, and knew where she was meant to be.

I’m on the edge of my seat, magically wide-eyed and trying not to blink I wonder “how is this going to go?” This is the process I have when I watch an amazing and unpredictable movie, my favorite kind. The kind where the writing diverts from the formula and instead throws you a curve ball full of magic. This movie watching process is often like a school year at Acton. This 24-25 school year was full of highs, lows, dramatic characters, magical chickens, and a mess—a beautiful messy process that threw us many curve balls and in the end always led to magic.

As the plane of the end of the year is about to land and learners hustle to complete projects and earn final badges I think this is the perfect time to remind ourselves about the BIG F word, failure. The word failure often has a negative connotation and today I’d like to invite you to redefine and embrace this word with fresh eyes. Education hero Carol Dweck shared “failure is information—we label it failure, but it’s more like, ‘This didn’t work, I’m a problem solver, and I’ll try something else.’” If failure is information then it isn’t bad or good, it simply is a tool.

A few months ago my daughter was puddling, complaining and wallowing in the tears of difficulty, and I as a parent was struggling. She was having difficulty with simply getting started, trying, and it seemed like at every corner she was faced with a tough moment for her to reject. My son was following her lead and although I had hoped he would be a simpler number 2 he was adding to my tumultuous feeling of: this is hard. I wanted my children to try, to have the growth mindset which I try desperately to model and adamantly preach however it wasn’t happening. I knew I couldn’t force them, I had to invite them.

It’s amazing how a single button can hold so much meaning. The button materials are mere pennies to purchase yet the button becomes invaluable because of the journey each learner takes to turn a button into a badge of honor. Badges are the tangible component of our Acton system and it is incredibly easy to compare and obsess over the worry of “did my child earn or not earn enough” badges. I’ve heard countless stories of parents pushing for the badge because we parents feel good when our child earns a token of treasure. I’d like to invite you to view the badge with a different lens.

What is joy? This was the keynote question of the Acton Academy Founders Conference I attended last weekend and this was the question Acton co-founder Laura Sandefer posed and shared. If you’ve never heard Laura speak it is a wonder as she is a gorgeous storyteller and an immensely thoughtful human. As I listened to her speech my eyes filled with tears of joy, gratitude, and inspiration. She was who I looked to for inspiration when I began the journey as your Founding Director and she is who I look to whenever I need a boost or when I am in the dip.

The beauty of being an Acton school is the sharing of experiences, information, and wise learners from Acton schools all over the world. A friend and Director of Acton Academy NW Indy, JD Collar, wrote an article for his school parents and shared it with our network during a discussion. JD’s article is a shared perspective of Acton Oshkosh and across the network and I’d like to share his words with you today.

Last week I shared a long document about varying roles adults play with children. This week our Guide team used this document for a deep dive conversation about roles at Acton and the growth we want in ourselves. The natural next step was preparing a Launch for learners to get an honest although vulnerable account of how Guides are perceived. This week and next we’ll find out the results. Here are our questions for learners:

Pickle Problem Pathways, say that 5 times fast! Sometimes life gives us pickles, sour moments that at times are hard to bite and give us strong feelings. In these moments it is imperative that we and our joyous learners know the pathway to pickle problem solving.

It’s that warm feeling, the happy tears, the moment you hold your breath and then exhale with appreciation, this is the feeling of gratitude. Being thankful and being thanked matter. The exchange of acknowledgement are the magical moments that we all remember. Acton co-founders Jeff and Laura Sandefer started it all fifteen years ago in Austin, Texas. They started a small non traditional school with only a handful of children and a big hope for change. Today, there are over 300 Acton’s across the globe and counting and at the end of this month I will venture to Austin, Texas to honor Jeff and Laura and witness them close their chapter and pass the leadership baton to another Acton leader. I, like many Acton founders, Guides, learners, and parents am immensely grateful for their inspiration and bravery.

A ritual is something special worth repeating, worth feeling, worth remembering. It may be an annual event, daily activity, or special practice every now and then tied to the season, action, or an event. In the words of American author Starhawk “Ritual affirms the common patterns, the values, the shared joys, risks, sorrows and changes that bind a community together. Ritual links together our ancestors and descendants, those who went before with those who will come after us.”

The final weeks of a session can be thrilling, nerve-wracking, and full of last minute to-do’s! Highs and lows equally abound and it’s this mix of emotions and actions that I believe make the journey of Acton for our heroes truly worth it. Learners are feeling their push towards ending the session and their need to complete a Core Skills badge for the Productivity Pizza challenge, master a material, or to get the star badge for Quest Excellence. Each child has their list of to-dos and it’s our parental job to check in, not to push, but simply love. This can be hard! The week and always night before an exhibition can be pretty intense for many parents (myself included) as we support our heroes. As much as our children are feeling the whirlwind we too experience the emotional rollercoaster. As we move into these final days I’d like to remind you why it matters how we parents choose to respond.

Although we live in the dairy state of Wisconsin bursting with farms full of livestock, corn, and more, many of us are not all too familiar with the process of herding sheep. Sure, I may think about sheep as I count these caricatures in bed or sing Old McDonald but other than these ideas of farm animals I personally don’t think about sheep often. Sheep and their helpers, sheepdogs, are an important concept when growing a community at Acton. This concept is so important that the sheepdog reference is a key part of the Acton network lingo of choice words. Just as we’ve become accustomed to using the word learner rather than student or reference the role of Captain or Pirate in the studio, the word sheepdog is a recent addition to our daily Acton lingo.

Sometimes reinventing the wheel is silly and today I’d like to honor and highlight the words of Laura Sandefer, co-founder and Chief Encourager of Acton Academy. She wrote a regular blog to support parents much like our newsletter and today I’d like to share her thoughts with you here. The title of her post dated June 22, 2017 is What Authority Do Parents Have At Acton Academy? Simply replace Eagles with our Owls and relate your journey to many families before you. Laura brilliantly writes:

“The monsters were never under my bed. Because the monsters were inside my head. I fear no monsters, for no monsters I see. Because all this time the monster has been me.” This poem by Nikita Gill highlights the revelation that every hero must experience. Monsters are mysterious, scary, and are created by feeding on our deepest fears. At Acton we’ve identified key monsters that tend to emerge for both learners and Guides. Naming the monster is the first step to knowing how to battle. Words matter.

The boom of the drum has sounded. As the drum’s resonance echos it makes room for sounds of the whistle of the wind, chirping of the birds, distant owl hoot, and your heart beat. This is what learners heard this Tuesday at the start of the Indigenous People Quest. Although the drum is merely an instrument its symbolic power is much like the drum we feel when adventure calls. The call to adventure is the first step for every hero. Before going on a great journey finding travelers, dragons, and treasure the hero must first feel the pull of the drum’s invitation, a resounding question “Do I want to find out, do I want to try?”