Info Kit - Acton Academy Kennebunkport

Acton Academy is one of the newest and most innovative (and downright coolest) school designs in the world

Hello, we are the Stack Family from Kennebunkport, ME and we are excited to bring Acton Academy to our community!!
- Mike, Kori, Kate, Keelan, Emma, and Lucas

Read more about our story here

What exactly is the difference between Acton Academy and other schools?

FYI No Homework @ Acton Academy!

A Meaningful Education

The purpose of an Acton education is to help your child discover, grow, and utilize their natural gifts and abilities.

Community

We foster fellowship among children, parents, and families to support one another on our individual hero's journeys.

Phenomenal Teachers "Guides"

We believe the learning experience is much richer with hands-on learning. No boring sit in your desk teacher-led lecture-style learning at Acton!

Apprenticeships

We believe in the power of apprenticeships. Beginning in middle school, our students obtain summer internships in a field they are passionate about.

One Day Per Week in Nature Immersion

Nature is an essential part of childhood. Not only is it good for their soul, but it's important for kids to take risks, build resilience, and gain confidence.

Project Based Learning

We believe students learn by doing. Acton students are building real-life skills in the classroom every day through hands-on projects.

Student Led

Acton Academy is “student led.” This means young people take ownership of their education and peer relationships.

Character Education

We encourage our students to develop personal virtues such as honesty, hard work, responsibility, kindness and empathy.

The Current, Traditional School Model Was Designed in 1893
ACTON ACADEMY WAS BORN DIFFERENT

Our students are challenged to develop personal character and virtue that will help them navigate their life using:

- kindness

- hard work

- honesty

- responsibility

- a deep sense of life purpose

We help young people find a calling so they can change the world.

Our Promises To Your Child

We believe each of our students will find a passion – something they love and have a gift to do – finding and pursuing this gift we call the Hero’s Journey. Our mission is to equip our students with the skills and tools they will need to find and pursue their life’s purpose.

Begin a Hero’s Journey.

Learn to be a curious, independent, lifelong learner.

Develop a deep respect for economic, political and religious freedoms.

Cherish the arts, wonders of the physical world and the mysteries of life on Earth.

Discover his or her most precious gifts and learn to use them to solve difficult problems.

Don't Just Give Your Child An Education...
Give them confidence, give them happiness, help them find their calling in life.

Why We Are Starting an Acton Academy

For the past year and a half we have been homeschooling our children, which has been, and continues to be, a wonderful journey. We began homeschooling because we wanted to instill our values, give our children time to run and be free, to be outside, to experience and learn from the real world around them, and simply to spend time as a family.

What amazed us almost immediately was how creative our kids are and how much they can do on their own. It has proven to us, what is already known, that kids want to learn and do it very naturally if we take the risk and step back. We do more service to our kids acting as their mentors, guides, and coaches as opposed to spoon feeding them information that has no relevance. It feels risky to give up control, but we have seen that loosening the reins and allowing kids freedom is the only way to let them learn who they are and what they are capable of.

Our kids are growing up in an entrepreneurial household, so statistically have a higher chance of being entrepreneurs themselves. But, regardless if they are or not, we want them to be able to think on their own, come up with out of the box solutions to problems, and to have the confidence to go against the grain when it's appropriate to set a higher standard.

When we read about Acton Academy in the book 'Courage to Grow' by Laura Sandefer it encompassed so much of what we were trying to accomplish for our kids in our homeschool. Our reaction to Acton Academy was, "Could this be even better? Could this challenge our kids in an amazing way? And could this help not only our kids, but other like-minded families in our community?"

At that moment, we were so happy with our own homeschooling and by no means looking to start a school, but we could not ignore that the answer to these questions were an absolute 'YES'!

So we did what we typically do...jumped in with excitement, faith, and two feet!