Week 8: Choice Words - Guides vs Teachers

When you walk into one of our studios at Acton, you won’t see rows of desks facing a chalkboard or an adult standing at the front delivering a lecture. Instead, you’ll notice young people — our “Heroes” — immersed in their quests, setting goals, asking questions, collaborating, and creating. And you’ll see adults moving quietly through the space — not instructing, but observing, asking good questions, helping set up the environment, and then stepping back.

There’s a reason we call them Guides, not "teachers." This is important. The word change isn’t superficial. It signals a fundamental re-imagining of how learning happens.

Learning is owned by the learner

In traditional education models, the teacher stands at the front, shares information, assigns work, grades it, and drives the pace. The learner is largely reactive: “I must wait for the teacher to tell me, I must complete this task, I must get the grade.”At Acton: the learner asks, “What do I want to learn? How will I find the path? What questions will I ask? What will I try next?” The Guide sets up frameworks and boundaries, but the learner drives the journey. When learners take ownership, they develop habits of self-direction, curiosity, resilience and initiative — qualities they will use for life.

The Guide helps create a learning environment, not deliver content

The role of the Guide is more like a game-maker, a coach, a curator. They design the studio’s rhythms, the quests, the challenges. They hold up the mirror: “What did you do? What’s your next move?” They enforce the covenant the learners agreed to, help maintain the community norms, and gradually hand over responsibility. They are not a lecturer, a grader, a dispenser of knowledge. This is a key difference. The learner is stronger when they find the answer, struggle, reflect, iterate. Learning sticks when it’s discovered, not just delivered.

We’re preparing for life

In the studio we talk about “Learn to Learn, Learn to Do, Learn to Be.” The Guide’s job is to help learners become independent, competent, confident human beings equipped for an uncertain future. For that you don’t need someone who simply knows the content — you need someone who helps you become a self-sufficient learner, thinker, doer. When Guides step aside (in the right way) and learners step up, the studio becomes theirs. They manage their time, collaborate with others, propose and refine their work, hold each other accountable. That’s real-world. That’s powerful.

It’s about learning how to learn, not memorizing what to learn

Because the world is changing fast. What matters isn’t only what you know today but how you learn tomorrow. Guides support the mastering of foundational skills (reading, writing, math) in self-paced ways — but they also foreground asking good questions, navigating unknowns, working in teams, iterating, improving. They remove the fear of failure, encourage “fail early, fail cheaply” so learners take risks and grow. Learning becomes dynamic, not static.

The Guide gradually becomes smaller

One beautiful feature of the model is that as learners become more capable, the Guide’s presence recedes. The ultimate goal: the studio runs itself, the learners lead themselves. That’s not just poetic — it’s practical. It shows trust, it fosters confidence, it creates a community where young people are not passive but active. Where they feel ownership and agency.

What this means for parents (and for our studio in Nanaimo)

If you’re coming to Acton Academy Nanaimo, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Expect questions instead of answers. Guides will often ask: “What have you tried? What will you try next? Would you like to try 'A' or 'B'?” Even if your child asks directly, the Guide may respond with a prompt, not a solution. That’s intentional.

• Expect that your child will sometimes struggle, feel uncertain, get frustrated. That’s good. It means they’re learning to persist, to figure things out, not just waiting for someone to fix them.

• Expect your child to have agency — to set goals, track progress, collaborate. The Guide will set structure and guardrails, but the learner works.

• Expect the culture: mixed ages, collaboration, peer mentoring, exhibitions of work, community governance — all of which are integral to the guide-model.

• Expect that what you see may feel different from traditional education: no lectures, no direct instruction, no tests. That’s by design.

  
  

In summary

At Acton Academy Nanaimo, the adults are not “teachers” in the old sense — not the keepers of knowledge, the dispensers of facts, the arbiters of grades. The adults are Guides: creators of challenges, facilitators of exploration, mirrors of accountability, champions of independence. Because we believe young people are naturally curious, capable of meaning-making, eager to learn when the right environment is set. Our job is to build the environment, set up the quests, trust the learners, and then step back so they can lead. That’s when learning becomes deep, lasting and joyful.

We’re excited to walk alongside your child in this journey — not as the sole teacher, but as a committed Guide, cheering them on as they discover their gifts, find their calling, and become the kind of lifelong learner the world needs.

In the words of the late, great Ken Robinson, "The gardener does not make a plant grow. The job of a gardener is to create optimal conditions for growth."