As part of our ongoing training as Socratic Guides, we have opportunities to connect with other Acton Guides from around the world through spaces called Guide Squads (GS). These gatherings are incredibly enriching, as they allow us to share experiences, reflect on our practice, and learn from one another.

One of our Guide Squad sessions focused on the book Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children’s Learning by Peter H. Johnston (2024, originally published in 2003). In this book, Johnston develops the idea that children learn who they are through the way adults speak to them. In this sense, language plays a fundamental role in shaping children’s identities, both in the classroom and in everyday life.

As I meet prospective families, I often find myself explaining various aspects of the Acton culture. Over the years, I've noticed that certain assumptions allow this approach to learning to flourish, while others simply make Acton not the right fit for a family. I recently took the time to write them down, and as I reread them, I realized they also serve as a reminder of what makes this community so special. I thought you might enjoy seeing them.

If I have to be honest, I think I arrived at Tinkuy long before my son did.

My journey began when I started questioning many of the ideas I myself had been raised with. I grew up in an environment where academic achievement, grades, and intellectual performance were highly valued, and for a long time I thought that was the most important thing I could offer my son. So when I began researching alternative education, I was initially looking for a way to maximize his intellectual abilities.

This past session, the Ascend Pumas explored Peru’s struggle for independence and the first decades of the Republic, from San Martín’s arrival to the final confrontation with Spain.

They wrestled with difficult Socratic questions: Would you sign the Act of Independence if doing so could put your family, your property, and your life at risk? If you were San Martín, would you have set aside the dispute over Guayaquil to secure Bolívar’s support? What makes a president legitimate? Can a country call itself free while inequality, forced labor, racism, and exclusion continue?

July has arrived, bringing my time as Explorer Studio’s interim Guide to a close. Looking back on these past months, I realize that what stays with me most are not the big milestones, but the quiet, everyday changes that unfolded so gradually they were almost impossible to notice while they were happening.

One of my favorite moments in Ascend is sitting down to read the reflections our Pumas write after finishing a book. These are not the traditional school book reports written to prove you understood the plot. Written as book reviews, they discuss authors, characters, arguments, writing style, and ideas, but most importantly, they explore how the reader was changed by the experience.

As I shared a few weeks ago, after a lively debate, Discovery democratically decided to move forward with their mural project. In Spark, no vote was needed—everyone agreed from the start that creating a mural was something they wanted to do.

Since then, the Pumas have been engaging in different exercises to reflect on composition, style, proportion, color, and other elements involved in creating a collective artwork.

Reading Grit by Angela Duckworth was a game changer in my life. In the learning environment I grew up in, the adults leading us often praised those who finished quickly, those for whom things came naturally and effortlessly. But when I understood that what mattered wasn’t doing it fast, but perseverance, the ability to get back up after difficulty and keep trying, that was my wake-up call.

In Acton, one of the most important responsibilities of a Guide is to lift a Learner’s eyes to the horizon, so they can imagine what’s possible and find their path with a clear vision of what they dream of, and the effort required to make it real.

At Tinkuy, we’re carefully preparing the ground to open our Launchpad Studio for High School in a couple of years. It may still feel far away, and we’ve been walking toward it for almost a decade. Our first Launchpadders will arrive after growing with us for 7 to 10 years. That’s the kind of foundation we can build on.

Who is Bernardo? Some of you who still haven’t met him might be wondering.
Bernardo is Tinkuy’s dog. Although, sometimes, the Pumas say he is one more Puma and even debate about which studio he would belong to.

Over the past year, new families have joined the community, and I think it’s important to share a little about Bernardo and how he  arrived at Tinkuy.

I couldn't help noticing the stark contrast between the world our children are growing up in and the one I knew. In Lima in the 1990s, when people around me finished high school, if they were lucky, they got to choose from the top local options: “la PUCP”, “la Pacífico” or “la de Lima”; San Marcos or Cayetano; maybe UNI or “la Richi”. For us, studying abroad for undergrad was simply unimaginable.

For our children, “abroad” is an option, not a fantasy.

Last Tuesday, the Spark Studio engaged in a dialogue about body care. The objective was simple yet meaningful: to help children recognize their own body sovereignty, and express, in a concrete way, what types of contact feel comfortable, uncomfortable, or context-dependent.

Through a dynamic activity using colored paper, valuable reflections emerged from the children. And their families, who joined us to observe during a Parents Coffee, got to see the process first hand.

What began as a simple idea—painting a mural on campus—quickly became something more meaningful at Tinkuy Marka Academy. As the Pumas from the Spark and Discovery studios discussed the project, differences of opinion emerged. Rather than avoiding the disagreement, the tribe chose to hold a debate.