Best Intentions
“Good intentions are like magic.” —butterflies rising
Monday morning I practiced my favorite activity: observing learners. I set my computer and notebook in front of me and while rarely touching them I tracked the habits of Discovery learners. It was the first Monday after an adventurous break and therefore the habits and productivity of the studio were incredibly low. Left and right learners were abusing their guardrails, taking excessive breaks, collaborating with friends without purpose, and many were actively distracting. The energy was a buzz for sure and for a handful it was purposeful but for many it was like a bee swarm of goofiness.
I observed in and out over the course of the multi-hour period and finally came back to find learners reflecting at the carpet. Their reflection which typically lasts 5-10 minutes lasted 25. They discussed their choices, changes, and debated each others tracking of work flow but overall the meeting lacked action, engagement, and was honestly inefficient. As I observed I heard the voice of a former mentor, conductor and speaker Benjamin Zander, “Are their eyes shining?” NO! Learners were wiggly, they sucked up time, and the whole meeting lacked intention.
Later that day I met with their Discovery Guide to connect and plan. For the last few years we’ve been tinkering with buy-in with fun challenges, questions, and encouraging learner-led system creation and accountability. Intrinsic motivation is tricky to cultivate and although great strides have been made we both realized that learners are currently challenged by two key areas: intention and efficiency. For a while these wise learners have been calling for change, trying to alter habits, yet their efforts have come up short. Enter here the role of the Guide: to notice, offer choices, and when possible connect actions to growing character.
On Tuesday, learners were presented with the Intentionality Challenge. Learners helped scaffold details and are tracking intentionality points during Core Skills and afternoon work times. If learners are intentional with clear evidence and tracking they get a point, if they lack intention they receive none. If a learner intends to break guardrails and actively distract the community their fellow travelers can find a consensus of 3 people to remove a hard earned point from their tally. If someone notices you go above and beyond they can award you a special point of intentionality. All the points add up for passage to the coveted Fun Friday!
So, as it is Friday, I bet you are wondering how it’s going? Honestly, better than we thought and learners are connecting their actions more to their individual and community goals. Next week we have stage 2 of the challenge to invite even greater intention and studio efficiency. The fun thing is these hefty character words once introduced tend to come up more and more! One learner shared “This intentionality thing is really catching on!” Even in Spark, learners were introduced to the idea of intentionality because of the Discovery idea ripple. Explaining was fun—intention means focus with meaning towards a goal.
To continue the ripple I’d like to invite you to consider your intention as an Acton parent and community member. Do you need to let go and step back from micromanaging or do you need to get more involved and engage with your child or engage with other parents more? As you identify your top intention I encourage you to be specific and start small. Here’s some ideas: If you need to let go at school drop offs, slowly walk your child to the door a few less steps each day and then eventually they’ll be jumping out of the car in the pick up line proud of their independence! If you need to engage with our Acton community, reach out to your parent running team and challenge each member to find their top 2 blog posts on our website. Set a time for coffee and discuss why those topics matter most to you.
Intentions are not just for a yoga class they truly are how you can cultivate a purposeful life. Like the beautiful poems of the artist Butterly Rising writes “Good intentions are like magic!”