At Acton Academy, your child doesn't get told information; they experience it. When your child gets their hands dirty, literally and figuratively, they'll never forget what they learned. Your child will also have time to explore any of their interests every week. So, if they fall in love with coding, they'll be able to code until they feel like they live in the Matrix.

The most successful in this world are not the ones who fail the least, but the ones who get back up when they fail every time. This is much harder to do when your child has been in a school all their life that taught them that failing is bad, but at Acton, our learners get back up when they’re knocked down, and that’s why we call them Heroes.

What does your child need to know… It's an interesting question. Many parents have asked if their children will learn what they need to know at Acton Academy, but it's impossible to answer because what does a child need to know?

If you are like most adults, when you think back to what math looked like, the following might come to mind: dull worksheets, boring lectures, confusing blackboard calculations, timed tests, and word problems you weren't sure what to make of. It's no wonder math is looked at so poorly and why traditional schools now label children as having math anxiety.

It’s time we take children out of these increasingly restrictive learning environments and put them somewhere that inspires them to learn through fun, hands-on projects, and self-paced education. Give children more freedom and control over their lives and their futures by letting them learn instead of making them schooled.

Our Guides have one rule, to never answer a question from a learner. Whenever I tell that to a parent, they look at me like I’ve lost my mind. “What do I mean our Guides never answer a question!?” Our focus is not on giving your child the answer but on inspiring them to find the answer on their own.

What is a report card? It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a card that gives you a report about your child. That sounds incredibly useful, but when you consider that the average traditional school only gives your child a report card twice a year, it becomes one of the most pointless reports a parent can have.

Schooling is where your child is told what to do and when to do it while being celebrated for their conformity and sameness. On the other hand, education involves not just knowledge and skills but character and leadership. Education is what sets your child up for life. Schooling is what sets your child up for good grades.

There is this common misconception about a teacher’s role in the classroom. Most parents would say that a teacher is there to educate their child, and most traditional schools would agree, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Acton Academy is not an academic school, although we thrive in academics. We are a character and leadership school because we understand character, values, and knowledge are far more important for a child's future.

Who are the most successful people in the world? It doesn’t matter if you define success as wealth, happiness, or wisdom; those who are most successful tend to be resilient, self-directed, disciplined, competent, and creative.

At Acton Academy, we don't have teachers. We have Guides, and our Guides job is to put education back into every learner's hands and let them discover and learn on their own or with their peers. That might sound scary if you are used to the traditional school mindset, but at Acton, it's our every day, and it is amazing to see firsthand.

Traditional schools are way too quick to label children. They expect your child to fall in line by sitting behind an uncomfortable desk, taking notes, never questioning what they are taught, and preparing for a test. If they don’t, they are labeled as daydreamers or troublemakers. Traditional schools will blame the child, but they never look in the mirror to ask if maybe the way they are teaching doesn’t work for that child.

Pets make learning more fun in nearly all subjects, whether using math to see how much our Guinea Pig weighs as he grows, science for learning about the kinds of food a Guinea Pig eats, Geography to learn where Guinea Pigs come from, or even Grammar/Writing where our learners will keep a diary about the life of our pet.

Traditional schools cannot address your child’s concerns or problems unless they affect the school itself. Ignoring your child’s concerns will make them feel unimportant and unempowered, pushing them to keep their concerns bottled up inside… and we all know how well that works out.

At Acton Academy, we embrace every child’s unique talents, gifts, abilities, passions, and desires. We believe every child deserves to be treated as more than just another cog in the machine.

We treat every child as an individual in an environment that allows them to explore, create, and grow to develop the character, knowledge, and skills needed for the real world.

How good are you at keeping up with the tasks you set for yourself? If you are like most, your lock screen has a couple of reminders that have been there for days or your post it note system has taken over a wall in your house. We always say we are going to get around to the goals we make, but why do we always forget about them?

What happens when your child gets a 95% on a test? In a traditional school, they are praised, and, if your child does it enough, they’re put on a dean’s list or moved to an advanced class, but how come no one ever questions the 5% of the test they failed?

Why do we, as adults, avoid doing things that have the potential to make us happy? It all comes down to fear and anxiety. Nobody likes to fail at anything, so anytime we think about the possibility of failure, our hearts start to race, and our brains fill with what-ifs.

Your child is capable of changing the world, but that can only happen when they have the skills, character, and values necessary to take on the real world. This video isn’t to talk about any value in particular, but to discuss the one skill every successful person has that puts them on the right path in life, and that is getting back up after they fall and try again.