Good morning everyone, and thank you for being here.
First, I want to thank the Guides for their care for the Eagles and their dedication to the Acton and Montessori philosophies.
I also want to thank our support staff, without whom we could not function: Mayra, Karla, Edith, and Odilia, and of course, Diana.
Next, I want to thank you, the parents, for choosing Acton Academy and for being truly the most generous, helpful, positive and heroic parents we could ask for. We love you.
Today, we celebrate the end of our 9th year as Acton Academy El Salvador! And the completion of another year if the lives of these precious Eagles.
Last week at the Acton Owner’s Conference in Austin, JD Collar, a fellow owner from Indiana, shared this email that he sent to his community. He does such a great job of explaining what the Eagles are doing here, and I can’t wait to share it with you:
He writes:
I often wonder if people first encountering our language about a hero's journey dismiss it as cute rhetoric aimed at children. It is an admittedly easy thing to do.
The word conjures images of comic book characters in capes, superpowers, and plotlines distant from the realities of daily life.
In fact, when I was first talking with an extended family member about Acton, I recall him saying in a subtly pejorative tone, "Well...I know you call the kids heroes, but I'm not sure about much else."
That comment has stuck with me over the years, and I often find myself wondering how common that sentiment is.
Here's the thing, though. We don't call them heroes because it's cute, or because it makes a nice slogan on a t-shirt, or even because it motivates them toward better behavior. No...the reason we call them heroes is far more fundamental.
We call your children heroes because it constitutes a fundamental reorientation of their place in the world.
That's a pretty bold statement, so bear with me for a few moments to explain it.
See, for most people, the goal in life is happiness -- which we might define as a life of abundance, devoid of struggle or pain.
Within this paradigm, the struggles we encounter become cause for bitterness and resentment because they pull us away from the equilibrium that is itself the goal of life. Within such a construct, ultimate success is having enough abundance to retreat from our labor and live a life of leisure.
Such is the good life, we are told.
Not so for the hero.
A hero, on the other hand, is motivated by precisely the opposite. The hero is motivated by the contribution he can make to the world around him, one that the world actually needs of him because he has been uniquely gifted and positioned for it. And because of this, the hero does the unthinkable and actually seeks out challenge, intentionally going out of his way to find struggle because he has learned that his most profound gifts, the greatness that is within him, simply will not manifest in the absence of challenge. Embracing the call to a life of meaning and purpose, therefore, inherently means walking head on into the darkness because it is there that we discover our light burns brightest.
This mindset is embedded in much of what happens here at Acton Indy.
An example you encountered recently is the humble Vision Word that you saw on your learner's Hero Board. What to the untrained eye may have appeared nothing more than an innocent character trait written in youthful handwriting is actually a quiet testimony to something so profound, so deep that most people don't even have eyes to see it.
I've personally witnessed heroes as young as six or seven years old make courageous decisions to intentionally seek out challenging situations in order to cultivate growth in that trait: - Heroes who are naturally shy choosing to lead studio discussions to practice courage.
- Heroes who are naturally avoidant choosing to pursue conflict resolution to practice peacemaking.
- Heroes who naturally don't see beyond their own needs choosing to sacrifice precious minutes of Free Time to clean a friend's table or sweep the floors to practice service to others.
This mindset is utterly foreign, absurd even, to the vast majority of the world.
"Let me find the scariest, most difficult thing possible and voluntarily do that."
The moment I step off campus, I don't meet too many people who live that way.
I'll leave you with this as an insight into how important I believe this is. The other day I was driving home and for a moment was struck by the depth and complexity of the challenges that await this generation of young people. This feeling lasted only for a moment though, for as soon as it appeared, it was followed by a profound sense of gratitude that the Heroes will be around to lead the charge in finding their solutions.
To help parents better understand the HOW of this, I want to make this more concrete for you:
Over the course of an Acton education, your child will engage in hundreds of Socratic discussions—where they are asked not to memorize, but to step into the shoes of a hero, make difficult moral choices, and wrestle with ambiguity. That’s how you become a courageous leader who can think clearly in a fog of uncertainty.
They will struggle—often in silence, often alone—to actively master academic skills, by setting goals, asking for help, and learning how to learn.
That’s how you become someone who is fiercely independent and capable of charting your own path.
And every six weeks, instead of taking a test, your child will create something real—a business, a public speech, a scientific prototype, a historical simulation—and exhibit what they’ve learned in front of an audience.
That’s how you become a person with the courage to put new things into the world.
And then—when they reach high school—your child will have the clarity, courage, and self-knowledge to put a stake in the ground and choose their next great adventure.
Whether that’s university, entrepreneurship, or launching something bold and new, they won’t just be “kicking the can down the road” until they graduate college and still…don’t know what they want to be when they grow up.
They will be choosing with purpose. And that is a rare and beautiful thing.
Thank you again, to everyone who is here on this Hero’s Journey together with these Eagles.
Warmly,
Shannon