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?
At Tinkuy, we believe children learn best when they take on real-world challenges. This session, the Spark Pumas embraced a new mission: becoming chefs.
This challenge was about much more than simply following a recipe. The real goal was to develop the skills, confidence, and character needed to create something meaningful that they could later share with others. The blog below captures the spirit of that journey and the learning that emerged along the way.
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.
This session, the Pumas had the opportunity to welcome four visiting learners from the United States: Francisco, Gonzalo, Rebecca, and Thomas. While they joined the tribe for only a short time, their presence brought something valuable: new perspectives. At first, the exchange appeared in simple ways. Learners shared games, practiced English during conversations, and discovered similarities and differences in how they approached challenges. But some of the most meaningful moments emerged when familiar assumptions were questioned.
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.
On a Monday morning with the Sparks, I asked, “How was your weekend, Pumas?” The Pumas usually share the activities they did, what they had for breakfast or lunch, whether they visited someone, or if they went to the park. But that Monday was different. Something had happened that the Sparks were trying to understand in their own way: the second round of Peru’s presidential elections.
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.
Like every year, the second session Quest is E-Ship (Entrepreneurship).
It is an experience in which the Pumas imagine, design, and execute their own entrepreneurship project.
Although we often see the final result during the fair or Exhibition, the real learning happens throughout the entire process: in the decisions they make, the changes of ideas, the organization, and the challenges that arise along the way.
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.
There are moments in the day that aren’t scheduled, announced, or planned, yet they end up shaping the atmosphere of the studio. One of those moments is D.E.A.R, Drop Everything and Read.
The invitation is clear and bold: pause whatever you’re doing and read. No option to “let me finish this first.” Just a quiet shift, choosing a book you are interested in and stepping into it.
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.
A few weeks ago, Inés and Gianni (guides of Ascend and Discovery, respectively) traveled with the Pumas who attended the international Acton network gathering in El Salvador. Some Mapaches (parents of the Pumas) took turns accompanying the Discovery Tribe while they were away.
Our task was clear: simply be present, without intervening, unless there was an imminent safety risk.
In this blog we share three parent perspectives of what we observed.
This year in Ascend we are testing a new format for the weekly 360. One single question. The new format asks them to connect the score to what happened, and to name the impact on themselves and others. It also gives them shared language for what we actually care about: honoring promises, protecting teamwork, and keeping the Studio healthy.
