Now that we are 3 weeks in, we are full steam ahead but able to turn around a bit and check in with our goals. At the Survival Camp that wrapped up ActonKL’s third year, the Acton Family spoke of what we hoped to see in the new year. Some shared about the growth of the school, some shared about a closer community. Some shared about personal growth. How will we, as a tribe, achieve what we set out to achieve?
Over-Arching Question: When Does a Hero Submit to Authority?
There is a book celebrated for its dark analysis of the human psyche in the absence of a recognized authority. In a nutshell, William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies tells of a group of school boys who are traveling by plane over remote islands in the Pacific Ocean. The plane crashes and the boys are stranded with limited resources and no authority figure to pull them together. The story details how the group’s initial attempts to form a civilized, functional society descend into chaos and anarchy as the society, complete with rules, leaders, assigned roles, a democracy and a sense of civility ultimately fails as infighting, idleness, fear and suspicion of the established authority take over and destroy the group.
Sorry for the spoiler, but the point is that this story highlights why, at the very crux of it, processes and systems need to be in place in order to achieve a functioning society that works. And ultimately, for the processes and systems to work, there must be some level of submission to the authority that has been agreed upon by society members.
Hence, the Overarching Question posed at the beginning of a new year when we have a chance to build a new tribe and grow it into what we want it to be: “When Does a Hero Submit to Authority?” When, amidst the assertion that the Eagles are self-led, do they realize that, in order to achieve what they declared they want to achieve, it is in their best interests to submit to and work with authority? And what is authority, in this context?
As we go through the various exciting Quests of the year, this is the question that will inspire and motivate us. This in the question that will guide us in our Hero’s Journey of 2019-2020.
This week, when we pose the question: “When does a Hero submit to Authority?” the sad answer is: “When there is haze.” We only had one day of school this week as the haze worsened and a government directive was finally issued to close all schools. The Eagles still managed to get things done, regardless!
Weekly Updates
Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update
Quest – Art
When Does a Hero Submit to the Tribe?
The sub-arching question for the ES Eagles this sprint is “When does a Hero submit to the Tribe?” The Tribe, after all, is the community in which we live and operate. The Eagles examined how they, as tribe members, could live productively within the tribe and contribute to it. One Eagle shared, “I learned that we do not have to shout to one another for others to hear us.” Another Eagle realized, “We need to stay focused and concentrate.”
Pass the Ping Pong Ball
This was a fun challenge to highlight what it means to all pitch in to avoid dropping the ball! The objective was to pass a ping pong ball around the circle by rolling it onto each other’s plates. The Eagles discovered that it took careful balancing and teamwork to achieve the goal, much like in life.
Lip Dub
Choreography started for the lip dub and the Eagles managed to come up with some dance steps. Hopefully they came up with more dance moves over the enforced holiday to create an awesome video!
Middle Studio (MS) Update
Evolution: The Ultimate Scientific Authority?
The MS Quest this sprint is Biology: Evolution. For the past 2 weeks the Eagles examined the beginning of evolution with the question ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ and then looked at the most basic forms of life – the cells. They also started choosing their own personal Biology Hero to research into for their Biology Hero Biography.
Through all this, the sub-overarching question the Eagles are challenged with is: “Is Evolution the Ultimate Scientific Authority?” In understanding more about the whole theory of evolution, they may come to their own conclusions as to what should take precedence.
Two Truths, One Lie
Alongside their scientific explorations, the MS Eagles have also been conducting squad-building exercises. Huddle Game: Lie to Me highlighted how well they know each other. Each MS Eagle had to think of 3 statements that described them. 2 of the statements had to be true, and one had to be a lie that could pass as the truth. Their peers had to pick out the lie.
The Eagles naturally went for the most extraordinary ‘facts’ about themselves like: “I was able to dive by the time I was 10 years old.”, “I can speak 4 languages.” and “I had a crush on someone in this Studio.” Can you spot the lie?
They had a ball picking fact from fiction. There was general hilarity at the wrong guesses, but it was inspiring for the Eagles to realize that they were amongst high achievers and geniuses. This game turned into an unplanned celebration of the Eagles.
Let’s see what Week 4 brings in the various studios quests and challenges. Most importantly, let’s see if, in this case, authority can be overcome and triumphed against … the authority of the haze, that is.
Some Flashbacks…
Four years ago, you might read that we started Acton Academy KL with experiments. While the start might look triumphant like this…
The reality is that our first pilot day at SK Taman Megah was also a school closure due to haze.