Building Real Confidence, Not Just Illusions: How Acton Academy Prepares Kids for Life
How Acton Academy in Mason, Ohio is turning learning upside down
"Fake it til you make it," is a scam—and it’s setting up our North Cincinnati region (Sycamore, Mason, Lebanon, Springboro) kids for a fall.
In my experience, “fake it til you make it,” does more harm than good, in that, like a hot air balloon with half a tank of gas and a wanderlust pilot, it sets up an imposter-syndrome plummet back to earth that can destroy the carefully built basket you thought would carry you to freedom.
Greek poet Archilochus is remembered for saying, “We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”
I like to say, “Confidence is built on evidence of excellence and the systems that reproduce it.”
What does that mean?
Let me explain by introducing you to a young Will Smith with this 1:54 clip; yes, the actor, rapper, and slapper-heard-round-the-world that you likely grew up watching as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air (I know I did).
“Don't ch’all never tell me you can't do something.”
Work ethic
To help us define work ethic in the context of school, I have two quick questions.
Did you develop your work ethic as a kid at school based on applied curiosity and a drive to solve problems with your friends, or like me and many of my peers in grade school, did you learn to, “fill up the ‘cup’ (your brain) and dump it out on the test,” with little-to-no continuity or relevance from one unit to the next?
Did you learn to pursue an important calling that made a difference; or, was school, “that place where you learned to, 1) get the best grade possible, 2) while doing the least amount of work possible, 3) so you could look as good as possible to your parents and peers?”
These are foundational experiences that most people I talk to can both easily and uncomfortably relate to.
In another video, Smith acknowledges he didn't get to where he is by talent, but by, “ridiculous, sickening, work ethic.”
If we can look past Smith’s recent-ish wildly public mistake, what I want to focus on that’s relevant to education is his grit and perseverance. Through his “build a wall” experience, he learned he can do a job way bigger than he ever thought possible, that big tasks can be achieved masterfully—one step, or brick, at a time.
Relevance to education
The definition of “quality” in education needs to once-and-for-all expand beyond test scores, behavioral compliance standards, and what colleges the average class of graduates get into.
What if the quality of an education was based on how much economic impact a graduating class collectively made?
Just thinking “out loud” there, but, famous billionaire Richard Branson told Fortune Magazine, “My own personal belief is that for running a company, ‘just get out into the world and do it’ is perhaps better than building up a lot of debt going to a university.”
I’d argue til I’m a deep purple in the face that mastery, camaraderie, and skills developed through real-world simulations like our Children’s Business Fair (register now!), genuine skill development are so much more important than clinical, isolatable, testable, content nuggets.
The structural problems with traditional school systems—public, private, charter, classical, parochial, etc—are much deeper than, 1) funding status of the school district, 2) student-teacher ratio, and 3) number of highly qualified teachers, and some include:
Testing theoretical knowledge through memorization that normalize problems like anxiety
Moving everyone at the same pace, in lockstep based on their age, regardless of individual essence, and giving children convenient administrative labels. Read more about this in my “Integrative vs. Segregative” article.
Deferring children’s innate sense of self-authorship to teachers and an administrative hierarchy designed to, as John D. Rockefeller (who funded the education part of the new deal in the 1930’s) said, “create a nation of workers, not a nation of thinkers.”
Giving grades that have no intrinsic meaning, and worse…
The grading system normalizes mediocrity
In what other context in life besides traditional school is a 90% success rate—an A- or a B+—an acceptable passing grade?
I’ve asked dozens of business owners and almost all of them say they wouldn’t keep an employee who does 90% of their job, and zero of them would promote that employee.
Combine the, “Fill up my brain and dump it out on the test” mindset with the mediocrity-normalizing grade-based measurement standard, and no wonder society says children are entitled and the majority of 18-22 year olds I ask about their school experience to say things like, “I did well in school, but I don’t feel like I learned anything.”
How is that even possible?
It means the business of education is measuring the wrong things; it’s broken.
We can further observe this state of condition by the US’s increasing cost-per-student ratio and the decreasing ranking of the US’s education system compared to other countries.
Let’s translate “education” to “our children’s future”
Our children can do so much more than learn to be good test takers.
Our children have a much greater capacity to learn, grow, and contribute than our 100-year-old-yet “traditional”—built for training factory workers—education school system offers. With the AI revolution effectively walking in the door of our modern society, schooling needs to have already adapted to nurture and support the next generation to become creative, adaptive, and nuanced in their reasoning.
And no, putting all of a child’s work on a Chromebook, monitored by a teacher in the classroom, or at home, as I was HORRIFIED to see happening from elementary school through high school when I spent the 2022-2023 school year substitute teaching in 5 different high-performing school districts, is not modernization. It’s the old wolf in the sheep’s clothing.
Don’t be scared; feel empowered to do something different.
Allow me to introduce you to Acton Academy
If you’re looking for an alternative that answers the question, “what’s your dream school?” I believe I have the answer: Acton Academy.
I’m not here to tell you that what we have is perfect, or that it’s easy, but neither is Life. What we have at Acton Academy North Cincinnati is skill development to a mastery level through real world simulations to prepare children for living meaningful lives, regardless of the path they choose. Isn’t that what we want as parents?
In fact, “Choice” is at the heart of the Learner Driven education framework, because a child who learns how to choose, learns how to choose well in their adult lives; and this bears out in the data, shown by the hundreds of Acton Academy graduates excelling in college or whatever their Next Great Adventure becomes.
There are many beautiful features that go into Acton Academy’s proprietary Learner Driven education model that I’d be thrilled to share more deeply with you, especially if you know parents who are looking for an elementary school for their children.
We are now enrolling for the fall of 2025 and only have 11 spots left.
We are finalizing contract details for our launch location in the Mason area this month and are available to give tours of the space.
We’re not just starting a school. We’re offering a way of life that helps families nurture heroes that are prepared to build the lives of their dreams.
A great place to start
Read “Courage to Grow,” the Acton Academy founders’ story. Get it here for 99 cents.
Respond to this email with your thoughts and questions, and schedule a tour on website.
That’s all for now.
Here’s to your transformational growth,
-Btw, here’s a Bonus inspirational video.
Joshua Blatman
Hello@actoncincynorth.com