Can Kids Really Teach Themselves?

"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is." - Isaac Asimov

How do children learn 10X faster at Acton Academy?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen something on our campus that’s hard to put into words.

Step into Launchpad, our high school studio, and it might feel like a poetry club, a fitness class, a tech incubator, or a graduate seminar. But that’s just the surface. The real magic is what’s behind it all.

For five weeks, learners haven’t just explored poetry, history, or AI, they’ve led every one of these initiatives entirely on their own, without an adult. They’ve transformed from passive and compliant teenagers into curators, designers, facilitators, project managers, and visionaries.

Here are some examples:

Two learners, a sophomore and a junior, both passionate about history, took peers through the causes, consequences, and impact of World War II. They even organized a trip to the Holocaust Museum and spoke to a survivor! They held debates, inspired research, and recently challenged their studiomates to create their own museum exhibits at the exhibition!

Another learner ran a six-week poetry project, guiding Warriors through slam poetry, classics, Hamilton-style performances, and culminating in a final original poem.

One of our graduating seniors is currently leading a six-week Quest (project) on AI, with the hope of helping his studio-mates better understand and use AI rather than be consumed by it. They explored LLMs, prompt engineering, the math behind AI, industry applications, and ethical dilemmas; they also met with several experts in the field. Currently, they are working on their final project: identifying a problem in your future field and using AI to solve it. Some of their AI tools are so promising that they are getting offers from professionals for their work! Can't wait to see what they have in store for their exhibition this week!

None of this was assigned. No adult forced it. There is no grade attached to it. That's what makes it so special. It's all self-motivated. When I asked the senior, who already led a structural physics quest a year ago, why he decided to create and lead this AI Quest, he said, “It’s fun, and I want to give back in my last year.”

By taking the lead on all of the learning, they have created an incredibly rich, learner-centered environment. Have you ever seen teenagers who show up to school not only excited to learn but ready to take their peers along with them?

This is the power of a learner-driven community, and more specifically, peer-to-peer learning, one of Acton Academy’s most underrated strengths. It’s how they grow 10X faster, not just in academics, but in leadership, compassion, patience, communication, organization, and humanity. AI could never replace this. They are literally teaching themselves. It’s beyond anything I’ve seen in my 20+ years in education.

Walking around campus, I see Adam Grant’s Hidden Potential, Carol Dweck’s Mindset, and Maria Montessori’s call to “follow the child” coming alive, not in theory, but in practice. I’m grateful to Jeff and Laura Sandefer for their profound vision and for reminding us that every child is a genius. I get to witness that genius every day, and I'm literally sitting back watching as they are changing the world.