Finalizing Our Ethos: A Milestone Four Years in the Making

Four years ago, I stood in a small room with six learners, a handful of handwritten contracts, and a deep conviction that young people are far more capable than the world gives them credit for. That was the beginning of Acton Academy Columbus.

At the time, we didn’t have much. No perfectly polished framework. No rulebook. Just an idea: that children, when given freedom, responsibility, and a safe community, can truly lead their own learning. We knew we were building something meaningful—but we also knew we were building it one day at a time.

Fast forward to today, and we have 45 learners across multiple studios, a growing team of passionate Guides, and a vibrant community of families who believe in the power of the Hero’s Journey. But perhaps the most important milestone we’ve reached—one that feels especially significant to me—is this:

We’ve finalized our Ethos.

This isn’t just a set of nice-sounding values to hang on the wall. This is the soul of our learning community—words that name what has been lived, wrestled with, protected, and passed down from the very first studio huddle to the most recent conflict resolution circle. These are the truths that have always been there, shaping our decisions and defining our culture. They just finally have a voice.

And wow, it took time.

Culture First, Language Later

It’s tempting to codify things early—to slap some inspiring phrases on a website and say, “This is who we are.” But Acton works differently. We live the culture first. We test it. We protect it. We ask hard questions. And only when we’re sure it’s real do we begin to name it.

So, for the past four years, we’ve been watching. Listening. Reflecting. What do our learners care about when no adult is watching? What boundaries do we return to over and over again? What unspoken rules do we enforce with a simple glance or a shared studio silence?

What emerged was a culture of ownership, courage, kindness, and intentionality—held together by trust.

We didn’t always get it right. Some days, the systems felt shaky. Some weeks, the growth was painful. But over time, something remarkable happened: learners began holding each other accountable with grace. They asked deeper questions. They found their voice. They stopped looking to adults for answers and started looking inward—or to each other.

Our job as Guides became clearer too: not to teach, fix, or rescue, but to launch. And to do that, we had to be grounded in our own ethos.

Two Ethos, One Mission

Finalizing the ethos meant writing not just one, but two separate declarations: one for learners, and one for Guides. Each plays a distinct role in our learning community, but both point to the same mission—helping young people find a calling and change the world.

Our Learner Ethos is filled with phrases that now echo in our studios daily:

We take ownership of our learning and our studio.
We do hard things.
We speak with honesty and listen with compassion.
We resolve conflicts face-to-face and seek truth over comfort.
We grow through challenge, feedback, and failure.
We leave the studio better than we found it.

These aren’t rules. They’re invitations—into responsibility, into growth, into community. They give language to the kind of culture our learners have already built and remind them that they are the authors of their own story.

The Guide Ethos, meanwhile, is our internal compass. It keeps us humble and focused. It says:

We are not here to rescue—we are here to launch.
We trust the process, even when it's messy.
We ask questions instead of giving answers.
We protect learner freedom with structure, and growth with accountability.
We model curiosity, humility, and the courage to step back so others can step forward.

One of my favorite lines from the Guide ethos reads:
“We honor the meaningful work of guiding—not by leading from the front, but by walking beside.”

That’s it. That’s the work. Not to be the hero of the story, but to hold the space where heroes rise.

What It Took to Get Here

We didn’t write these ethos statements in a day—or even a week. It took four years of living the questions, wrestling with nuance, and deeply observing the heartbeat of our community. There were drafts. Rewrites. Long walks. Studio moments that made us proud. Others that made us ask, “What went wrong here?”

We listened to learners. We watched how Guides held space. We thought about what matters most during circle, during conflict resolution, during Socratic discussions, and during moments when someone just needed to cry in a corner. We pulled from our lived experience—not a template.

And now, with the ethos finalized, we’re not just documenting what’s always been there—we’re reinforcing it. We’re giving current and future members of our community a shared language and a shared standard. And we’re setting a tone that says: This is who we are, and this is what we protect.

A Living Document

Even now, I don’t see the ethos as a finished product. It’s a living document—something we’ll revisit, recommit to, and refine as we grow. But for the first time, it feels complete enough to share. To print. To post on the walls of our studios and use in moments of celebration and challenge.

Finalizing the ethos doesn’t mean the culture is “set.” It means we now have something to come back to. A mirror. A promise. A guide.

Looking Ahead

When I look back at our journey—from six learners in 2020 to 45 today—I’m filled with gratitude. Not just for the numbers, but for the spirit of this community. For the parents who trusted something unconventional. For the learners who took the leap into self-direction. For the Guides who chose the harder path: to ask instead of tell, to listen instead of lead.

This ethos is not just for us. It’s for every young person who steps into this space, unsure at first but capable beyond measure. It’s for the heroes we’ve already launched—and the ones still waiting to be called forth.

We’ve come a long way. And we’re just getting started.

– Varun
Founder & Guide, Acton Academy Columbus