“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” —Coretta Scott King

Every Friday morning each Acton studio member comes together for a Town Hall meeting. The design of this meeting is for it to be run 100% by learners. There is a Town Hall facilitator, an elected leader of the studio who fulfills this role as a job with great honor, and every member of the studio is required to fully participate with intense listening, respectful comments, and voting. This is Acton’s dedicated weekly practice in self-governance and it works!

Think about a time you felt uncomfortable recently and then think back to many other times you’ve felt that way in the past year. How do you typically react when you feel discomfort? Do you A. Walk away or are silent forever B. Do you push through the difficulty with action or words C. Do you take a break and come back later renewed D. Something else or a mix of these options. How do you typically operate? Now think of your child, do they tend to react the same, differently, or do their reactions change depending on the moment?

Imagine this…Tuesday morning you arrive at school and notice yellow crime scene tape sealing off the Sound Sanctuary (music room). You are curious, you look through the narrow window and are shocked to see precious music materials thrown on the floor! That afternoon your Chief Detective invites you and the Acton forensics team to explore the scene in hopes of solving the Case of the Missing Music. The Chief shares, “This morning the Sound Sanctuary was found in disarray. Suspicious fingerprints are all over the piano, materials have been thrown on the floor, and important piano practice books for the Piano 1 & 2 badges are missing!” The Chief asks for your expert deductive skills to help solve the case. So, you and your partner put on your blue gloves, grab your magnify glass, pencil and notebook, and carefully get to work exploring every inch of the crime scene.

What is creativity? It’s hard to define and honestly understanding, sourcing, and radiating creativity has been one of my life’s top missions. Creativity like love is a bit of a mystery but you know when you feel it, you know when you feel inspired! Literary hero Elizabeth Gilbert defines creativity as the relationship between a human being and the mysteries of inspiration. As learners have stepped further into their Creative and Culinary Arts camp journey it has been glorious to watch them deepen their relationship with their creative source. They are visual artists, thespians, bakers, and all around creative makers!

The definition of joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. But what does joy really feel, look, or sound like? To me, the way I describe joy is it’s like having a small sun inside your body that slowly grows and glows allowing you to shine inside out and sometimes even shine and share your light with others. Your body feels warm, safe, and enlivened and your eyes and face are somehow both relaxed and at great attention. Joy is both the sound of a deep exhalation and a giggle. Joy isn’t just happiness, joy is a journey. The journey of not always completing the task well but wanting to try again, it is the thrill of leaning in to learning and improving. Joy is the process with all the mess not just the successful end. During this week’s Creative Arts and Culinary camp learners have been consistently joyful and I believe they are joyful and investing in the process because they have trust, choice, and perhaps a little golden light pixie dust.

Young entrepreneurial caterpillars have begun to emerge from this session’s business cocoon as gorgeous and creative butterflies. Just like a butterfly must first struggle to break free from their cocoon before they can fly, learners have experienced the ups and downs of creating. All week learners have morphed from the big eyed idea stage of their businesses, to the stressful startup phase, to now these final session days of racing to fly before the deadline. Your butterfly must go through this metamorphosis, it is natural, although at times scary, and above all thrilling. For reference, the definition of metamorphosis is a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means. Your learner is morphing, transforming, and is so bravely super!

Imagine this, your child is laser focused with determination and wonder as they problem solve with a friend. Could your child have found this state of flow on their own? Maybe, but often they find it faster and more delightfully when working with a peer or even group of friends.

This session Guides and I have been encouraging deeper collaboration between learners and the ripples of collaboration have inspired a wave of productivity and joy in the studios! Small moments of teaching a fellow Owl to operate the essential oil diffuser and assisting a friend how to organize the challenging Math 100 board material may seem small but truly these little things have the power to change a learners outlook in a big way. The ripple creates a wave, here’s how.

Imagine this, learners arrive at school and instead of free play they choose to get to work researching, expensing, strategizing, and producing. The 5 minute warning chime dings and multiple learners are unmoved, laser focused, and in deep flow—they can not hear the chime. They need a few taps and kind reminders that morning Launch is starting. Since the Entrepreneurship Quest was introduced on Tuesday this has been daily life at Acton. Learners are barreling into school wanting to talk about their ideas with their business partners or research how to best make their creations. The buzz of being in the biz is swarming!

The final stage of the hero’s journey is a hero’s return. After a long journey full of twists, turns, and challenges a hero finds their way home but they are never the same, the journey changes a hero forever. Just think of beloved Elsa and Anna in Frozen II (a fan favorite for many), they battled elemental spirits, searched for hidden truths, and Elsa was even frozen solid! After each hero faced their final battle they set course for home and returned the same but different. Elsa and Anna both found treasure in themselves, they found courage, leadership, new responsibilities, and identity. They heard the call to adventure, left home, and then returned as new versions of themselves. They were changed by challenge, changed by experience, grown by vulnerability and courage.

You see a food wrapper on the floor of the kitchen, it isn’t yours, do you walk by or do you pick it up? You notice a friend forgot their lunch in the coat room, do you remind them, do you grab it, do you do anything? Your friend looks sad, what do you do? A fellow learner is running in the school, what do you do? These are daily questions running through the minds of learners at school, perhaps you have similar questions running through your brain as you go through your days. Decision making is tough, but choosing if, when, and how to act is toughest!

Was the big bad wolf truly bad with all his huffing and puffing or was he simply a misunderstood wolf with a bad case of allergies in need of some sugar? How do you know which story to believe in the case of Pig vs. Wolf? What do you do when you see or experience injustice?

This week learners extended their journey of debate to the courtroom and began their judicial system education with a fairytale mock trial.

When you think about Halloween you most likely think about dressing up, assuming a different identity for the day or evening. This act can be thrilling, time consuming, and wildly creative. So, why don’t we dress in costume more often?

Dressing up is an act of play, a simple and essential part of life. Play is at the heart of every child and I argue that it is at the heart of every creative individual (everyone).

When I was in 5th grade my teacher gave every child a certificate, some for high achievement, for helping, and for me I received the certificate for why. A few years ago I reflected on this memory and for the first time realized that perhaps my many curious questions may not have been welcomed by Ms. Mallory and thus that certificate was a not so subtle hint that my curiosity was a bit too much for her. When I was eleven I was proud of this certificate and as an adult I can say definitively that asking why and being curious is still a core part of my identity. I am still deeply committed to why’s, asking why or how something works, asking why someone feels strongly, and I believe that asking questions is at the root of all people’s creative curiosity.

Ms. Mallory may not have loved my questions but here at Acton we thrive and celebrate learners and their abundance of questions!

When I experience an Exhibition I am always intrigued by how learners navigate the session topic but more curiously I love to witness the ripples and variety of growth on display. Last night learners grew in confidence, others grew in experiencing the pride from earning their first badge, and more seasoned learners grew in their ability to articulate the systems and democracy they helped create. Probably the most growth I witnessed last night, perhaps you noticed this gem too, was the amazingly brave leadership of 8 learners, the “Leadership Team”. These learners were chosen to be leaders by their peers and these learners truly shined last night. I am absolutely in awe of their bravery (some shy just a few months ago). Last night they were ready, prepared, spoke to a crowd with pride. They were proud leaders, proud of their school, proud to be part of the Acton parliament of owls! I am simply proud to bear witness.

Hit the pause button on your busy daily grind and give yourself and your family one special dinner (home cooked or store bought—don’t stress) and take the moment to connect. Put your cell phone away, take off your apple watch and instead add one special element to your dinner, maybe candles, a fancy drink, or jiving music. The point here is to draw attention to the specialness of coming together for an official family meeting. As you dive in to scrumptious food pose a few questions to your family such as What does it mean to be in our family? What makes our family unique? and Should our family focus on having more fun or doing activities that matter to us?

“No running, go back and try again.” “Remember to use your marshmallow feet, you have to keep your promise!” These were the regular reminders that were heard this week by Acton learners as they moved through the school practicing accountability and commitment. As we all know, Acton is a school model that honors process learning and self-governance by inviting learners to create their rules known as promises. The thought of this concept tends to confuse adults. As you would imagine, kids creating and policing their own rules is messy. There is nothing clean or easy about it. The simple fact is that despite the mess this process generates responsibility, trust, and pride. The mess is worth making.

As week 2 began Guides shared the following, “You are these learners’ Mini-Guide and you are responsible for helping them learn how to use materials properly and learn how the studio works. Are you ready for this job?” Each returning Spark Studio learner’s eyes widened, mouth grinned, and spine stretched taller as they graciously agreed to serve as Mini-Guides, a big honor and responsibility!

What is a Mini-Guide at Acton? It is a Guide in training who is about half the size of an adult, hence the mini. A Mini-Guide has lots of studio experience and is willing to practice patience and kindness in order to guide new learners in the process of learning to learn while Mini-Guides learn to be a leader.

As parents we don’t have a crystal ball, a psychic mind, or fortune cookie that will tell us our child will thrive, be successful, make friends, or love to learn. Although we wish for peace of mind our child’s future is a secret that only time will tell.

Mahatma Gandhi, a hero by many and especially Acton learners, once said “the future depends on what we do in the present.” As we end the first week of school if you are grappling with predictions, questions, or worry here are a few tools to help you live into the present moment.

On the last day of the school year it invites a practice that we do well, reflection. Think back to the first day of the school year for your learner, for you! Now think of the many quests explored, badges earned, stories told, and now think of your learner and family today. How has your learner changed? How have you changed? What was new this year, what was hard, what was surprising, what filled your heart to the brim?

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou

These wise words were shared with learners a handful of months ago and we remember they made quite an impression. These last weeks, learners have been reflecting on their Acton journey as they prepare for Portfolio meetings and they were reminded of these powerful words as they reflected on their journey and reflected on the journey of the entire studio. One Discovery Studio learner was reminded of word hero Maya as he reflected on his actions and how he makes his fellow travelers feel.