ActonKL Founding Story : Part 2 – The First Experiment

We ended the first post with this question:

Can students teach each other, instead of having teachers?

I was inspired by nature. Exactly, it was an army of ants that found an impossibly connected path during one of the many hiking sessions with Shien Jin. The way the ants solved problems, signaled each other, worked together had this tremendous beauty and simplicity.

“Do you mean… like a Multi-level marketing, but for learning?”

Shien Jin and I did the back-of-the-envelope calculations of such classes. An RM10/month tuition seemed perfectly possible. Heck, an RM100/month school seemed doable too. Everything is possible because there would be no teachers. It made complete sense. Yes—in theory—it made complete sense.

We exchanged ideas for the next two months. We read research on Khan Academy, peer learning, and so on. Also, I had experienced such learning in Boy Scouts. Intuitively, it made sense. The cost could be staggering low because there would be no adults.

A 2-page slide, a mishmashed of notes and courage to grow. It all seemed promising.

It was a total contrast to my work. I was structuring derivatives and financing structures for the Ultra High Net worth individuals in Credit Suisse. Each deal size was at least tens of millions and in US Dollars. Yes, the minimum sizes were near RM100,000,000, executed by financial experts and top-notch legal advice. But I was dreaming about the possibility of RM100 school with no teachers.

How do we know if this idea works?

We had to experiment. We had to find a bunch of guinea pigs. We had to find a space and time to execute.

Arus Academy was starting that time. They had 21 students as their first batch of students, who, over the next few years made headlines in the maker education scene. The founders gracefully shared their students. David, the dedicated tinkering co-founder gave his exact words:

“Do whatever you want with them. No worries”

So, Shien Jin and I had our first experiment in Penang. We did a lesson on Ramly Burger Maths. Basically, all the Math you would use when it comes to running a Ramly Burger store. Practical, relevant and tasty 😛

Few of the students from the first group stayed over and coached the next group on the same lessons that they just did.

We saw the entire possibility of peer learning, solving real-world problems, supported by a free Internet & Khan Academy infrastructure came to life. Yes, it was scrappy, it was buggy, it was full of hiccups. But gosh, we saw how all the ingredients worked together. We saw how learning could happen.

The Arus Academy students inspired us. They enjoyed learning this way. The enjoyed the joy of solving problems with some help from Khan Academy. They enjoyed coaching others to do the same. I was called the Ramly Burger Uncle, not a Math Teacher 😛

This first experiment and another similar experiment (a week later) were so convincing that I decided to leave a banking career the second time*. The stakes were higher—I was starting a family and my wife-to-be left her teaching job to start a venture herself, a Children’s Library.

We were entering the unknown. We were crossing the threshold, to the special world.

The special world was how the ActonKL team came together. Stay tuned for Part 3!

*The first time was in December 2011. I traveled the world for two years (refer to Part 1).