​Our education journey started with the public school system.  Kindergarten year we had a good year and a great teacher.  As we entered first grade I could slowly see the rigid structure weighing heavily on Peyton.  It was a struggle to get her to want to go to school.  I began researching other options in the area and did not have anything 100% resonate with my desires for Peyton’s education. I explored the homeschooling option; however, since I work full time I would not be able to give Peyton the guidance she would need or be able to connect with other homeschooling families in the community due to my work schedule. 
 
We continued into her second-grade year and her not wanting to go to school only intensified.  She was miserable and I was miserable sending her every day.  I honestly understood why she was not happy.  A lot of what I saw in her is what I felt growing up going through a system that was very rigid and put me in a one size fits all approach that did not align with how I learned at all.  We went to our second scheduled parent-teacher conferences in February 2020 and I left knowing I had to figure out a change.  Tests and metrics that we had been told in previous years to not put much weight into all of the sudden in the second grade were a big deal and the ability to explain those to the parents and help guide the student on the best path to enhance their learning was non-existent.  One month later COVID hit and school was remote the remainder of the year.  I was dealing with a very different child via remote learning.  She wanted to learn, and she could explore her interests as well as develop in core skill areas.  ​Ironically several of the programs we used at home were the same ones she was using at school, so she was getting some of the same content but with the ability to work at her level and solidify her understanding instead of having to keep at a pace to get through the year worth of content to meet standards and most likely only solidify a fraction of the understanding.  This showed me kids are missing the valuable building blocks they need in education.

​The stage was set. It was parents vs heroes. Who would win? Conventional wisdom said the parents should have easily beat the heroes. It turns out the exact opposite was true!

The challenge, if you don’t know it, is a fun and instructive design exercise that encourages teams to experience simple but profound lessons in collaboration, innovation and creativity.

The challenge seems simple enough: small teams have to build a structure in 18 minutes using 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string and 1 marshmallow. The winning team is the one that can construct the tallest freestanding structure with the marshmallow on top within the time allowed. The point of the exercise is to collaborate very quickly in order to respond to the task. It reveals some surprising lessons about the nature of collaboration.

I had the the prior knowledge that our youngest group of heroes (age 5-7) had time and again proven they would beat CEOs of fortune 500 companies, so it was extra special to watch this play out in front of our eyes.

The challenge has been done hundreds of times across the country and the results are intriguing.

Who performs poorly?
Recent business school graduates. Why? They cheat and get distracted. They try to find the single correct plan and then attempt to execute that. They run out of time and when they put the marshmallow on top, it’s a crisis. Sound familiar?

Who performs well?
Kindergarten kids. Why? First of all, none of the kids spend time trying to become CEO of Spaghetti Inc.! More importantly, they start with the marshmallow and then build successive prototypes, all the time keeping the marshmallow on top until they find a solution that works.

The lesson learned from all this fun? The capacity to experiment and prototype is essential to success. (aka trial and error)

What a week! From our launch party last Saturday with our founding families to completing our lip dub challenge. What a full amazing week as we launched our brand new alternative school in Lincoln, Nebraska!

This included the Acton tradition of the “Threshold Ceremony” where founding families symbolically choose Acton and to embark on a Hero’s Journey as they cross the threshold from the ordinary world into an extraordinary one.

​After letting our heroes explore their new space we then completed a second Acton tradition of palm painting. Here we invited our founding heroes and their parents to leave their mark on the space.

Our heroes worked hard in their first full week. They took on many challenges and drank information from a firehose!
​
One of their team-building challenges was to create a lip dub video, after some initial failures they adapted their plan and put together this fun version of a Frozen song.

IEPs. This term has always bothered me; it never made sense why only children with learning differences have an IEP. After all, the term stands for Individualized Education Plan (or Program). Shouldn’t every child’s educational journey be individualized?

Individual Is Not Practical in Traditional Education
The problem is that in society, we sometimes do what is more convenient rather than what is right. It’s not practical in traditional education, i.e., the factory model, to individualize each learner’s educational plan. In traditional education, everyone learns the same thing at the same time for the purpose of efficiency. But, if you’ve ever met 2 people even with the same parents, living under the same roof (heck, even identical twins for that matter), you know just how different each individual is. So why do we insist on educating young people in the same way?

Individual Education for Each & Every Learner
At Acton, we believe in individualized education plans 100%, but for each and every learner! This is not to say that everyone won’t learn some of the same material, but the timeline of when that happens is based on who that learner is as an individual. We have learners of the same age in vastly different spots, but no one is ahead or behind, they are all exactly where they need to be for them because everyone’s development is unique. We work towards improvement and progress for each individual with an understanding that there is never such thing as “done” because learning and education is a life-long journey.

Learners Discover and Lean Into Their Passions
And what about passions? At Acton, we let our learners lean into their passions by first exposing them to a wide variety of trades and crafts and then letting them try out what fits for them with apprenticeships each year (starting around the age of 11). This allows them to try out a passion to see if it’s something they would like to pursue (as a hobby or career). Because again, we believe that each child’s educational journey should be, first and foremost…individualized.

Kori Stack, M.Ed.
​Acton Academy Kennebunkport

Long before I ever had kids, I had spent 2 years working toward a degree in childhood education (I wanted to be a 3rd or 4th-grade teacher). As part of the degree program, I spent 80 hours assisting in a 4th-grade classroom. What I learned during that time, was that the public education system is designed to keep the ‘average’ kid moving forward while the above or below average are forced to simply comply with the status quo. I could go on and on about my opinions as to why I think the system is flawed, but ultimately I just concluded that it wasn’t a good fit for me and likely wouldn’t be a good fit for my children. 

Once Kash was born, I started looking into local private schools, but frankly, I didn’t feel that Lincoln had very strong alternatives. This left me feeling a little defeated, and I started mentally preparing myself to send Kash to LPS. I actually went as far as enrolling him. Then COVID hit. Which made public education feel even more constrained than before. I decided to register as a homeschool parent at about the same time that my friend told me about Acton Academy. I watched the videos on the website, scheduled a meeting with Zach, and then read The Courage to Grow. I finally found what I didn’t know I was looking for. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Albert Einstein: “Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”. This clearly aligns with Acton’s belief system.

While waiting for Acton Lincoln to open I was forced to figure out a homeschool ‘program’ that would fill the gap. In the beginning, it was a total nightmare for both Kash and I. Why? Because I was doing exactly what I was trying to protect him from. I had put up a copy of the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution on the wall behind his desk, and I was trying to force him to follow along the Hooked on Phonics program at a pace that I had pre-determined, rather than letting him work at his own pace. We were both miserable. And I was teaching him that learning is a negative experience. It was the opposite of what I wanted for him. So, I reflected back on “The Courage to Grow”, and decided to reframe things based on that book. 

By this time, you might have the impression that Acton Academies are really different from traditional schools. Like, REALLY different.

You’re right. Acton Academies are off-the-charts different. On purpose.

But if you think Acton students have limited options after graduation, think again! In their years at Acton, students learn to be independent thinkers and self-starters. They launch real businesses. They learn practical, marketable skills. They find their calling.

Acton graduates, from around the world, who apply to college are attractive candidates, displaying responsibility, maturity and a diversity of experiences that is rare among their peers.

Graduates who start their own businesses have a leg up on the competition because, by the time they turned 18, they’d already started and ran several businesses and completed dozens of internships.

There are no limits for Acton graduates – they are ready to follow whatever path they choose.
​

This story is from KOLN - 1011 News in Lincoln. Read the full article on 1011now.com

Soon, there will be a new school opening in Lincoln.

It’s called Acton Academy and is an alternative for parents who don’t want their kids to follow traditional K-12 learning.

The room it will be in is going through renovations right now but soon it will be a place for nearly a dozen kids to learn.

“Our families are really excited to join, and build this with us as we learn too,” said co-founder, Zach Harsin.

Kids who would be in grades K-5 will all be in one room learning together. Right now, there’s ten enrolled.

“They’re learning how to be students in the 21st century and that requires problem-solving skills, that requires interpersonal skills, that requires communication and interviews and how to go out and solicit to get a job,” said Harsin.

Read the full article at 1011now.com

We are excited to announce our new launch date of November 16th, 2020 to meet the needs of our founding families in this current moment.

My wife and I originally envisioned opening in the Fall of 2021. This aligned well with our daughter starting Kindergarten next fall and as busy working parents of three little kiddos, the idea of 18 months of planning sure seemed much less daunting. 

As we started speaking with our founding families, we quickly realized of all the years for these families to sit and wait for their dream school, this was NOT the year. 

We decided to see how we could speed up our time table and meet their needs. We immediately began a hiring search while also looking for the perfect location. Within weeks we had hired our rock star guide and found our ideal location, but it still wasn't how we envisioned launching.

We still needed a handful more families to join us on this journey and there was still about six months of prep, planning, and training to fit into the next few months.

​Yes, we want to deliver on all our promises, yes we want all the pieces to be planned exactly right, but we also realized, we wouldn't be true to the Acton spirit if we waited until the timing was perfect and all our ducks were in a row. This is our own hero's journey after-all!

Curious to learn more about the Hero's Journey and how it fits into the bigger picture at Acton Academy Lincoln? Read More...

Co-Founder Zach Harsin recently sat with Rachel Terry from School Choice Nebraska to discuss Acton Academy Lincoln and School Choice in Nebraska

I could hardly contain my excitement as I wrote out a text to my wife after finding the answer to our prayers. “You HAVE to watch this. I desire this for our family. This makes my heart happy”....

We had long felt angst whenever we tried to make a decision for our children’s education. No option ever felt quite right. From homeschooling to private schools and even moving to a small town, all possible options crossed our minds. As we continued to wrestle with what to do, one thing became abundantly clear, parents all over the world wrestle with this same thing. They all want what is best for their children. They are willing to buy a house in the ‘right’ school district, sacrifice financially to send them to private schools, or even devote themselves to homeschooling. Regardless of how it manifests itself, they are all doing what they believe is best for their family and their children’s futures.

As I wrote out a second text to my wife, I was writing a statement I never thought I would write, let alone be announcing to the world a few months later. The end of the text read; “We are going to start a school.” 😳

Yes, we are crazy. Yes, we have no idea what we have just signed up for. But within hours of stumbling upon Acton Academy, an 11-year-old micro-school model in Austin Texas, I had already written those words “We are going to start a school.”

I believe with every fiber of my soul that this is not only right for our family but, with its entrepreneurial spirit, something Lincoln will embrace with open arms.

 Acton Academy Lincoln will simply be a community of like-minded families seeking a modern approach to education, one that will help equip their kids for the 21st century (using a blend of Montessori elements, Socratic questioning and learner driven learning), discover & develop their God-given passions and unique calling on their life, learn through quests and apprenticeships, and develop mastery of reading, writing, and arithmetic using the latest technology through self-paced learning! 

Yes, just call us crazy. But we join 275 other Actons in 20 countries around the world who are all on this journey together. So the only question is, are you crazy enough to join?

Even if you don’t have school-aged kids, or you are more than happy with your current education path, we ask that you join us in praying for / assisting in our search for these three things to set Acton Academy Lincoln up for success:

1. Founding Families - We can’t have a school without families taking a brave step to go on this adventure with us.
2. A Super Spot - We are actively looking for a perfect location here in Lincoln to call home.
3. A Gifted Guide - Heidi and I know ourselves well enough to know we aren’t the teacher our kids and fellow classmates need. Hence why we skipped over homeschooling so easily. We are seeking a gifted guide who can embody everything Acton stands for and is willing to learn alongside us...

Finally, if you are a parent who can identify with our struggle to find the right fit for your family, I ask you to watch this video. This was the video I stumbled upon that first stirred something inside me. My hope is it will resonate with you as well.


Be Blessed,

Zach Harsin

Acton Academy Lincoln Founder

PS- Please feel free to message us on here or text/call 402-858-5151. We would love to hear from you and learn more about your family!