A new Sprint is always exciting. Well, this is our 12th Sprint. Why is it still so appealing?
Simple. It is alive, and it is our Circle of Life.
You mean, The Lion King’s Circle of Life? Yes, and that movie and songs are profound!
From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There’s more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
The start of the Sprint is like the sunrise, revealing the unlimited potential ahead. This Sprint, we are aiming towards the Children’s Business Fair with the Entrepreneurship Quest. Also, there are new initiatives such as Bahasa and further improvement in studio systems. Finally, we end this blog post with a guest post from Edmond!
Entrepreneurship Quest
This Sprint’s E-Ship Quest took two different forms between the Elementary School (ES) and Middle School (MS). The ES will focus on building businesses of lemonade stands, in competing teams. The MS will focus on exploring deep into the psyche of an entrepreneur, with lots of challenge. Both studios will take a more challenging E-Ship Quest compared to last year. Day One starts with a positive-spirited company launch in ES, and an intense trading game in the MS studios.
The ES Eagles gathered in groups and formed their own company. They came up with mission statements and organized into different roles (accountant, bookkeeper, customer support, chef, and lawyer). It is getting serious because they had to make wallet which converts into studio Eagle Bucks. They were catching the entrepreneurship bug!
“This is my favoritest sprint because we learn to set up our own business.”
“The sprints are really getting better! It’s the best sprint again.”
“Who’s going to be the CEO?”
“What’s our mission statement? Best homemade lemonade and giving to autism?”
“You can start a business even with a small idea. Don’t let go of your dreams!”
“Wow, I didn’t know that duct tape can be made into a wallet!”
The MS Eagles kicked off with the International Trading Game.
The objective is for “countries” to earn the most money by trading/selling their produce (paper shapes) to the trader or other countries. There are rich & wealthy, middle income and developing countries. Wealthy developed countries have all the tools (scissors, rulers, protractors) to make the shapes, while poorer developing countries have the resources. Resource here being paper and stickers (to simulate new materials/tech).
“It’s not fair, they have scissors, and we don’t!” The dissatisfaction turned into finding creative ways to make money. One team went from 2nd world country to the be richer than a 1st world country, by carefully “managing their finances” and be ready to obtain the tech to win.
Later in the week, the MS Eagles played other games such as coin gambling and guessing Dr. Ewe’s pocket. The gambling game is to make a bet of heads or tails, and the winner gets double their stake, while loser loses it all. The aim is to see how much of risk-taker (a.k.a MBA Hare) are you.
During the “guess what is in Dr. Ewe’s pocket,” they learned to ask questions about their customers using Open and Closed questions. Is it an ice-cream stick, a toy cockroach, or a bitter gourd? Huh? What kind of odd stuff Dr. Ewe keeps under his sleeves?
In both studios, they were immersed in teamwork, negotiation, discussions and overcoming challenges. Also, they were learning about themselves. Both the studios dug deeper into three entrepreneur archetype: bootstrap tortoise, asset fox, and MBA hare. We used relevant examples such as Chef Leah, a 7-year-old baker for the bootstrap tortoise.
They learned from successful entrepreneurs and their style of growing their businesses.
“I’m a bootstrap tortoise because I want to build my business customer by customer and help people like Chef Leah.”
“I’m a combination of a tortoise and fox” “I want to be an MBA hare because I want a big idea to make lots of money.”
Next week, the Eagles will venture further into the elusive topic of branding and marketing. What makes a great brand? Why do you rather hang out in McDonald’s versus PappaRich?
Elementary School Upgrades: Kontrak, Permainan, Pendidikan Jasmani, Pn. Florence, Duit Helang?!
When the ES studio first started, we were honing habits of kindness, and being supportive of each other. As it grows, governance systems are built and with it, accountability and leader representatives. Ms. Caryn introduced Eagle councils last Sprint. And the practice continued with Kimaya & Sufyan elected as Eagle council this Sprint.
The leaders are empowered to ensure studio sacredness. But some Eagles do cross the boundaries too much, show agreeable taker tendencies, break honor codes, or take shortcuts and refuse to do work. Our young leaders will struggle in such cases. So, the ES studios now include Probationary Contract as part of tools. The aim is to ensure seriousness and commitment from the Eagle. While these contracts might seem stern, we see all this with a spirit of optimism and firmness. The message is: we welcome you when you re-commit; we are kind by holding the boundaries firm.
Two Eagles declared their contract as they recommitted into the Sprint. Congratulations on taking the courageous steps of commitment.
A new season also meant different flavor of games. In P.E., the Eagles ran to train for Spartan race. It was a challenge of perseverance!
“Yes, I ran 15 rounds!!!!!”
“Oh no, 25 rounds?!”
It was tiring, but they did not stop, they walked and ran and walked and ran.
In free time, the Eagles were on Pokémon cards. It looked like trading may happen soon!
A new season also meant we have our first intern, Ms. Florence! The ES Eagles welcomed her by introducing her to the different parts of Studio life (tour, systems, learning, and their traditions). It looked to be a fruitful six weeks ahead!
We heard: “Miss Florence is really helpful and nice!”
On Friday, the long-awaited Eagle Buck (EB) store re-opened. The ES Eagles haven’t had EB store for two Sprints because of consequences they have set back then. That’s four months—a long time for an 8-year-old. We had some new Eagles since. The more seasoned Eagles whispered to them: “You’ll love the EB store. You get to buy things with your EB!”
You might notice the header. We tried different small experiments to explore a second language. And we finally started this Sprint with 20-minutes of Bahasa Malaysia every day. BM time! Here are some of the attempts:
“Can I have some kicap please?”
“I’m going to test my parents to see if they know kicap vs. ketchup.
“Saya suka minum air Kelapa, wait kepala or kelapa?”
We encourage parents to use these words in their conversations at home!
Opening Up and Edmond’s Notes
We admit it—we have been conservative. Our policy: To protect the learning environment of our Eagles, we do not offer tours or have meetings on campus. We are changing our practice, to keep ActonKL more open. The Eagles wrote some guidance notes to ensure visitors understand and respect their space. The learning spaces belong to the Eagles (not the school administrator).
The Eagles embraced this change with a warm and welcoming heart. During the holidays, four Eagles volunteered to take up the job of producing a tour book for prospective families.
“Making this book is so fun!”
“Let’s collect best memories from the Eagles!”
“Which ones do you want to write about?”
So, we are testing “the opening up.” One of the early followers of ActonKL is Edmond. He had been wanting to visit. Edmond Yap, the guy who started www.edunation.my to solve massive education inequality has this to say:
I’m here to observe because Acton represents the cutting edge of education possibilities, a place where students decide what they will learn every single day. Acton to me is synonymous with motivation and action, of empathy and kindness. I’ve sighed more this past few days than I have this past year, both sighs of “WOW!” and sighs of jealousy.
I’m jealous because I’ve seen how bad our public schools do. Public schools are under-resourced, underdeveloped and led poorly. Many public schools have horrendous test results, tests that do nothing to promote real knowledge or ability.
As I am writing this, the “Eagles” the Acton term for students are huddled around a circle and having a furious discussion about name-calling and bullying and how it may not be the right kind of behavior. Where was this discussion when I was in school?
Our public schools, particularly those located in low-income neighborhoods almost always underperform. Some schools have math failure rates as high as 86%, and the biggest question is “what went wrong?”. That list is depressingly long, but one major factor is that our kids have zero motivation to learn.
Why zero motivation? Public school kids have no say in what to learn. They have no control to the direction of their education, they are not allowed to chase their passions and worst of all, they are expected to sit down, be quiet and listen for 6 hours a day, 200 days a year for 11 years. Then we wonder why our kids enter the workforce without the ability to articulate, to write, to imagine and to conquer difficult challenges.
In my few days in Acton, I see the Eagles set their own learning goals, they chase after own entrepreneurial projects, they discuss, they research, and they help each other. As I’m finishing this paragraph, the Eagles have gathered themselves together to discuss the merits of the Hippocratic oath, what is moral and what is not.
It is our moral imperative as Malaysians to make better education available to all and Acton is the edge of the spear and the beginning of a movement to make better education accessible to all.
Thank you, Edmond. We look forward to the (Acton) sun that shines to a broader world. It’s Acton Academy’s Circle of Life.
P.S. The Lion King has profound lessons. Learn more here as this professor going through it with Jungian psychology (Lecture 1, Lecture 2).
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