Take a look in any Acton Academy literature and you’ll quickly see that the adults in the studio are encouraged to see the genius within each child. And each child is encouraged to discover their inner genius. I think this is a powerful way to take on education and relationships. Instead of the “teacher” being in charge of all of the knowledge, each child is encouraged to do their own discovering.
I remember being in 6th grade and having a very old-school teacher (by that point it was his 30th and last year of teaching). There was one kid in our class, I’ll call him Jimmy, who was usually talking to someone when he wasn’t supposed to, playing with some action figure he snuck into his desk, and almost always got his name written on the board for some minor or major infraction. It didn’t take long for us as 6th graders to know how our teacher felt about Jimmy. It also didn’t take long for a lot of us to feel the same way about Jimmy within the classroom.
The Day Our View Of Jimmy Changed
There was one day midway through our school year where we were given a completely random quiz with a brand new Social Studies book that had a special focus on our state’s history. We were given 30 minutes to take the quiz, and we were allowed to use the book. Throughout that 30 minutes, the teacher’s eyes were on Jimmy because the teacher noticed that Jimmy wasn’t frantically looking through the book like the rest of the class. When the time was up we followed the normal procedure of handing our paper to the person behind us so the teacher could read out the answers and we’d correct each other’s quizzes. After the grading was done and the quizzes given back to their rightful owners, our teacher stood in front of the class and made a few comments about those he saw using the book as a resource and how he saw some people (aka Jimmy) not really working too hard to find answers within the book. The teacher scanned the room and pointed to Jimmy and then to me. His plan was to compare our grades, assuming that Jimmy got a poor score and that I got an excellent one, because that’s how it usually went. He expected an easy and stark comparison because I usually got good grades, and because I was feverishly rummaging through the book for the entire 30 minutes. He figured that he would use me as a great example of how one “ought to be” spending their time during an open-book pop-quiz. Much to everyone’s surprise and my embarrassment, I was only able to find a few answers within the book and randomly guessed on the rest of the questions, and ended up with a solid “D+” grade. I had messed up the point my teacher was trying to make. Even so, he looked right at Jimmy and asked him for his score, not expecting much. Through a sheepish and ever mischievous smile, Jimmy reported that he had gotten every single question right except for one. Even without scouring the book. I remember my teacher fumbling and mumbling about something, but in truth, his perpetuated assumption about Jimmy was utterly incorrect.
Was Jimmy a Genius?
It turns out Jimmy had a really special interest in our state’s history and already had a few books and video tapes at home that he read and watched in his free time. He also spent the weekends with his uncle going to different state parks and taking tours. This quiz wasn’t testing the his ability to search and find answers in real-time like it was for the rest of us. For Jimmy, it was an exercise in recalling interesting information that he’d been soaking up for months and months already about something that truly fascinated and spoke to him.
That quiz day was a profound one for me. And not just because I was called out for my bad grade in front of the whole class. I was given an opportunity to see a different side of my classmate and it gave me a new perspective on what it meant to be “smart”. Admittedly, before that day I assumed that if you got good grades, you were smart, and if you couldn’t get good grades, you just weren’t. In my 11 year old mind, it was that black and white. But that quiz day opened my eyes to the possibility that a grade on a pop-quiz could not be the one and only way to determine someone’s level of intelligence. Because if that were the case, based on my grade, was I not smart anymore? I was still smart, but didn’t have an opportunity this time to demonstrate it. And for Jimmy, this was one instance where he actually got to demonstrate his intelligence. It made me wonder: what else did Jimmy know that we all weren’t aware of? What else was he good at that nobody was giving him the chance to do? It was a meaningful realization for me and has since impacted me and the way I view the adults and children in my life.
This is one of many ways Acton Academy is different.
The Acton model lends itself to young people getting to find and demonstrate their unique genius in ways beyond those of a traditional school. While there is an emphasis on doing excellent work, mastery, and the ability to proficiently do core skills, there is equal space at an Acton Academy for discovery and showcasing each learner’s unique gifts, whether it be decorating the classroom, planning a field trip, stepping up into leadership, giving a moving speech, or demonstrating compassion when nobody else does.
At Acton, it’s not just about the grades. It’s about the journey, the experience, and the relationships along the way.