Season by Season to Home
Many years ago, I had a friend who fell in love quickly. Keith was madly in love with a French woman and after six months together he decided to propose. He had a ring, set the scene, and asked her to marry him. When he asked, she replied “Il fast traverser les saisons” (we need to go through the seasons together) and she somewhat rejected his proposal. As Keith’s friend I shared empathy yet I was also taken by her French perspective. To this day, I remind myself of French Kristal and how if something doesn’t feel settled perhaps it needs more time to experience the seasons.
Six weeks ago, at the beginning of our session season, every hero at Acton (learner, guide, parent) entered a cave of the unknown: an unclear beginning of how our new school spaces would feel and evolve. I along with learners wondered, could our new homes now called Spark Land & Acton Main hold the same beautiful feeling of warmth and wonder that we had when we were in one home together?
Over and over this session I’ve heard learners reflect “it’s the same but it’s different.” The walls, the window views, and having older and younger friends farther apart is different but Acton and the life of the studio is the same. In fact, I believe life at Acton has never been better because of one component: investment.
Week by week, learners at Spark Land and Acton Main have deepened their investment into their work, friends, and their community. Spark Land heroes are bustling with goal setting and taking ownership of cleaning, especially the highly coveted toilet cleaner job! Acton Main learners are owning their experience by leading Launches and games and guiding their goals and systems with clearer rubrics and recipes, all learner-led!
Of all the studios, Adventure learners have shown an overflow of investment and a renewed spirit for what it means to be an Acton learner. Each Adventure hero has surpassed their productivity goals with record speed and abundant joy. Percents earned in Khan Academy (Math) have been in double digits (unheard of) and collaboration to read and craft habits has been at an all time high. Here is a story from their studio that brought tears to my eyes and smiles.
Every week learners in every studio set a weekly goal. A few weeks ago the goal of the Adventure studio was to build greater trust: learner to learner and learner to Guide. They charted their habits on the whiteboard wall and walked through ideas of how trust could be demonstrated and felt. Two weeks in, I, their Guide, left the studio for 15 minutes. When I returned, I checked in with one learner who more often than not goofs off during Core Skills. He was sweetly playing with legos and I asked him how his work was going that morning. He said “I surpassed my goal a minute ago, more than I thought I could do, and so I’m taking a brain break right now.” I briefly praised “nice, congrats!” and then he continued “I was thinking about trust and how I usually just fool around but then I thought I could just do my work and just actually focus and that I would build trust more that way and maybe it would feel good. Now it’s all a lot easier and actually doing Math today was kinda fun.” I walked over to him with tears in my eyes, a big smile, and I held out my hand for a handshake. I said “Welcome to Acton, I am so proud that you get it now and that you are taking ownership of your learning.” He smiled and later he shared this story with his fellow travelers.
Adventure learners and ALL our heroes are truly settling in and feeling at home. There are still seasons to come to offer change yet I can now confidently say that at the end of Session 4 in both locations, learners are light, calm, and illuminated with wonder. Their faces beam with ease and their investment tells me they are home!
What does home feel like? How do you know when you are home? As you launch into a week off from Acton and your learner is at home, I encourage your family to reflect and discuss what it means to be home. Is home a place, a person, or a feeling? How do you invest in home?