Parent Village
At the start of every parent meeting I ask for everyone to connect by sharing one word for how they feel about Acton, the only rule is honesty. As I reflect on this week’s parent meeting the only word I feel is deeply grateful. I am grateful to every one of you brave parents for deciding to join the journey of Acton, the unknown path that is so different from the educational journey we had growing up. I am grateful that you show up for your child with love, vulnerability, and bravery and that this Wednesday many of you showed up to engage in building meaningful community, a growing village of like-minded life-long learners.
For those of you that weren’t able to make it, here’s a mini-recap and for those of you who did attend here’s a reminder of the journey with links.
Following a post-it activity naming kid privileges and kid rights we parents engaged in a deep socratic discussion and it was tough! We scratched our heads and spun in a circle discussing definitions of these words, our children, how we parent, and how privilege and rights can be seen differently through other cultures and communities. It’s the goal of any socratic discussion to spark more questions and conversation and I was delighted to receive a message the next day from a parent. His share is worth sharing with you, a quote by Janaya Khan “Privilege isn’t about what you’ve gone through, it’s about what you haven’t had to go through.” Thanks Joshua for the share and for your kind words!
Every parent deserves the opportunity to be a kid, so yes, parents were challenged to be programmers and human robots! Walking down stairs, counting steps, and clarifying directions to claim the animal figurine prize was tough! Despite the difficulty of coding I saw many smiling faces and thought “it’s fun being an Acton adult kid.” Lastly we closed with words from a fellow Acton parent from Deep Creek Learning Center, an Acton in Pennsylvania, that I think all parents can identify with. Below is an excerpt and her full letter here.
“Questions I have asked myself at certain points over the last few months since having our 5 year old daughter Blake start at Deep Creek: 1. What does she actually do all day? 2. How do I know that she is learning? 3. What if this approach is ‘too much’ for her? 4. I want to reach out to the Guides, but aren’t I supposed to be getting info from Blake? 5. I like the idea of no tests/grades. But how do I know there is progress happening? 6. Do I really have to go tent camping?…”
Her lessons learned and our realities are
1. Talk to other parents—I will be sharing a parent list with mentor (1 year+) parents willing to chat.
2. Show up to everything—Coffee Connects, Parent Meetings, Exhibitions, and anytime you want to explore Acton I invite you to pop in between 3:15—5pm.
3. Ask yourself “Is this about me or my learner?”—then ask others, then your learner.
4. Model life-long learning—explore our parent library shelf! Here’s 2 book recommendations The Self-Driven Child and The Element to get you started plus a helpful giggle book for any tired but fun parent, Horizontal Parenting. Talk of a parent book club has begun…
All in all, I’d like to say being a parent is hard. Sometimes we are tired, our kids are hard, and we don’t have any more experiments or answers in us, this is when and why we have community.
Simply…thank you.