If Acton Academy North Cincinnati is Not a Religious School, What is It?
The shocking revelations of Learner Driven education at Acton Academy
A billionaire led a group coaching call I was on recently and how it started intrigued me.
He talked about how we are wired to avoid pain more than pursue pleasure, and said that if you don’t know what you want, you can get pretty close by recognizing what you don’t want and then moving in the opposite direction.
This notion percolates to the top of my mind because of what he said next.
He said, “not trying to make a religious statement, but as a thought experiment, you might try understanding what God would do by moving in the opposite direction of what the Devil would do.”
So I’m going to try the thought experiment, too, about education.
But, before I go on, I need to proclaim from the rafters that I’m not saying anyone is a bad person—this is not a character assassination. Most teachers I know are desperate to change the system, but they feel handcuffed and resigned.
There’s a reason that 50% of teachers quit in the first 5 years.
All I’m doing here is sharing the results of a single question I asked ChatGPT, unedited, and I’ll share its offer for a follow up question, which I’ll label so it’s clear.
Here goes…
My Single Question:
How would the devil design an education system?
Here’s what ChatGPT said:
“If the Devil were to design an education system, it would likely be engineered not just to miseducate, but to suppress the human spirit, distort truth, and fracture the connection between individuals and their inner potential or moral compass. Here's a breakdown of how such a system might look, thematically:
🧠 Mind Control Over Critical Thinking
Memorization over Mastery: Prioritize rote memorization and standardized tests over inquiry, exploration, and deep understanding.
Suppress Questioning: Punish or discourage curiosity and dissent. Make children afraid to ask "why."
🧍♂️ Conformity Over Individuality
One-size-fits-all Curriculum: Force every learner into the same mold, regardless of interests, talents, or neurodiversity.
Punish Uniqueness: Label creative or divergent behavior as "disruptive" or "disordered."
🕰️ Obedience Over Autonomy
Bell Schedules as Conditioning: Train children like factory workers to move, sit, speak, and think on command.
Reward Compliance: Praise quiet obedience; penalize initiative, leadership, or independent thought.
💼 Economic Slavery Over Soul Purpose
Career Training, Not Calling Discovery: Push kids toward "safe" jobs without ever asking who they are or what brings them alive.
Link Worth to Productivity: Teach that your value is determined by your resume, not your character or consciousness.
🧾 External Validation Over Inner Wisdom
Grades as Identity: Make children believe that a letter or number defines their intelligence or worth.
No Time for Reflection: Keep them so busy they never learn to hear their own inner voice.
🧍 Isolation Over Community
Segregate by Age and Ability: Prevent multi-age, interdependent learning that mimics real life and fosters empathy.
Create Hierarchies: Rank students, classes, and schools to pit them against each other.
📺 Distract and Divide
Flood with Irrelevant Content: Teach facts without context, history without narrative, and subjects without integration.
Ban the Sacred: Remove philosophy, ethics, spirituality, and wonder from the classroom.
In short, a Devil-designed education system would look eerily similar to aspects of the modern industrial-era school system: externally controlled, spiritually empty, and psychologically numbing.”
Follow-up Question Offered by ChatGPT
Would you like a contrasting vision of what a “divinely inspired” education system might look like?
Me: “Yes.”
“A divinely inspired education system would be the sacred opposite of the devil’s design—rooted in freedom, truth, love, and the awakening of the soul. It would not just prepare children to survive in the world but to transform it. Here’s what that could look like:
🧭 Purpose Over Performance
Calling-Centered Learning: Education would help each child discover their unique reason for being—their genius, their joy, their service.
No Standard Path: Learning is self-paced, self-directed, and nonlinear—because humans aren’t machines.
🌱 Inner Wisdom Over External Approval
Trust the Inner Guide: Children would be taught to listen to intuition, conscience, and inner knowing.
No Grades, Only Growth: Progress is measured by character development, mastery, and contribution—not test scores.
🕊️ Freedom Over Control
Voluntary Learning: Children learn because they’re curious, not coerced.
Choice and Ownership: Learners choose their goals, mentors, and projects. Adults act as guides, not overlords.
💞 Love Over Fear
Safe to Fail, Safe to Be: Mistakes are seen as holy ground for growth, not sources of shame.
Belonging First: Every child is unconditionally valued. Community is based on mutual respect and shared purpose.
🔥 Truth Over Indoctrination
Learn How to Think, Not What to Think: Logic, ethics, dialectic, and dialogue are at the core.
Sacred Studies Included: Philosophy, cosmology, myth, and spiritual traditions are explored with reverence, not dogma.
🎨 Creativity Over Conformity
Art, Music, Movement, Nature: These aren’t electives—they’re essentials. They connect learners to what’s eternal.
Multi-Age Collaboration: Elders mentor youth, youth inspire elders. Real learning happens in real community.
🌍 Service Over Selfish Ambition
Solve Real Problems: Learners engage with the world, not worksheets. They create solutions, not just absorb information.
Global and Cosmic Citizenship: Understand one’s place in the universe, the planet, and the human story.
In essence, a divinely inspired system awakens what is already sacred within the child. It doesn’t mold—it liberates. It doesn’t program—it reveals. It doesn’t prepare one to fit into the world—it empowers one to reimagine it.”
Conclusion (my words)
Wow, what did you think of that exercise?
Acton Academy does virtually all of the things that I found in the second set of education design elements.
So, “is Acton Academy a religious school?”
Officially, No.
Around 30% of Acton Academies are religious schools, but here at Acton Academy North Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, I like to say, “we follow real estate agent rules.”
This means it’s our job to inform, but we’re not allowed to steer.
Truly, however, the Acton Academy system gets adapted to the community it serves, led by the parent-founders who earned a spot in the tribe that is the Acton Academy network.
We Acton Academy founders are a group of 300+ parents just like you — perhaps with the additional character traits of being entrepreneurial, uniquely inspired, and willing to rise to this unique calling to change the world — parents who want an education system that works for our families and our communities.
Instead of the administrator driven education models we all know of, the Acton Academy family network has built a truly inspired model we call, “Learner Driven,” built from the ground up, to support children in embodying their potential for heroic responsibility, whatever that looks like, in age appropriate ways, so children learn real world skills at a mastery level, and to recognize their unique potential for heroic responsibility — so they learn to take brave steps to change the world.
We are launching our school – Acton Academy North Cincinnati – right here in Mason, Ohio, and are ready to audition like-minded families like you to start with us this fall, 2025.
We hope you’ll join us.
Start your application audition on our website today.
Warmly,
Joshua Blatman
ActonCincyNorth.com
TheDrivenLearner.com