When Your Kid is a Rebel

Written by the mother of a 9-year-old Revel Rebel

One morning, my nine-year-old daughter put on a gold-lined black blazer for school. She spent extra time doing her hair in a tight ponytail but was still ready to go 20 minutes before we had to leave.

“I want to look more pro today. I have a lot going on. And I like that this jacket is my school colours. Can we go now?”

She loves school. A few weeks ago, she had appointments and it made sense to keep her home. She cried, like full-on sobbed, about having to miss school.

It wasn’t always quite like this. For three years we happily sent our daughter to a local public school and it was all good. Yet, even with things going well, by the end of first grade she was over it. “I hate school. It’s so boring,” was a common refrain from six-year-old. Back then, an afternoon off for a dentist appointment was cause for happy cheers.

Family circumstances eventually led us to homeschooling and extended traveling and the change was huge. We all felt freed and loved learning together. When we returned to Ottawa, we weren’t ready to give up that sweet taste of educational freedom for the bitterness of strict schedules, cramped desks and evening homework. But our daughter was craving a little more structure and a few more kids.

So, she became Revel Academy Rebel.

Revel Academy is unlike other private schools. Don’t think uniforms, long-standing tradition, and a sprawling campus. Instead, picture an eclectic mix of mini interns, some in PJs, at a small tech start-up operating on the ground floor of an office building.

The school had been on our radar for a while. We never intended to turn away from public school but as homeschoolers, we looked at a range of education options and Revel’s model was instantly appealing.

Revel is an Acton Academy, an innovative micro-school model that started in Austin, Texas and now has more than a two hundred locally-owned and family-run locations around the world. There are just 26 kids at Revel spread amongst three multi-age classrooms, or studios as they’re called.

At Revel, kids are kind of in charge and very much valued. They’re encouraged to follow a hero’s journey, take responsibility for their own learning, find a calling that will change the world, and be tough-minded and warm-hearted. Questions and grit are valued over facts and conformity, while failure is recognized as necessary, and even celebrated, because that’s when the real learning happens.

Four months after drinking the Kool-Aid, I can say that so far, these are more than a bunch of website catchphrases.

For our daughter, they mean school is now an exciting, empowering and fun adventure.

How does that happen?

How did she fall so deeply in love with school?

Simply, Revel gives her autonomy, responsibility, motivation and fun against the backdrop of a caring community.

Instead of tests, grades and report cards, she has personalized annual, weekly and daily goals that lead to badges. She works at her own pace, tracks her progress, regularly reviews and reflects on herself and her peers, and helps plan and deliver exhibitions for parents.

Instead of teachers, she has guides that stand to the side but bring enthusiasm, encouragement, one- on-one attention and high fives, while ensuring it doesn’t all descend into chaos. They help her stay on track, challenge her to do her best, and ask tough questions that push her to figure things out for herself.

Instead of lessons our daughter has 90 minutes per day to work independently on core skills – math, language arts, a second language and typing – using a variety of online software. She works toward her pre-set goals, asks for help if needs it, and decides how and where she spends that time (even pausing to hop on an exercise bike, make a cup of tea in the kitchen or…procrastinate with friends).

Instead of classes, there are group activities and workshops that reinforce and apply math, French and writing skills, as well as Quests that offer a series of hands-on challenges centred around a theme. So far, she’s done deep explorations into indigenous culture, physics and now entrepreneurship.

Mixed in with all this are daily Socratic discussions, regular opportunities for leadership and public speaking, Karate and coding lessons, art projects and yoga, outside play, and plenty of time for a boardgame or to curl up with a good book. There are field trips to encourage team building; guest speakers and mentors; and read out-louds about history’s heroes, ethics and impacts.

Instead of being pushed to memorize, she’s pushed to ask questions and we’re sometimes left speechless by what she brings to the dinner table. “Mom, when do you think a hero should submit to authority?” Umm…I…More spaghetti?

So, at the end of the day, instead of coming home with homework, she comes home with big ideas. In fact, there’s no homework at Revel. Zero. Zilch. But many evenings we now find our former school- hater at the dining table working on math or grammar or Spanish…Because she wants to.

Critical thinking, competency, creativity, communication and collaboration are all integral at Revel.

But so too are character and community.

At Revel, kids greet the guides with a handshake. They participate in democratic decision-making to establish the rules and contracts and hold weekly town hall meetings. A school currency system further helps the kids hold themselves and each other accountable for work, behaviour and time management, while a kid-run committee helps mediate disputes. Children even take care of the janitorial duties with a daily period of vacuuming, tidying and scrubbing!

My tween girl has yet to come home with friend drama or complaints about classmates and cliques. “Everyone is friends at Revel,” she explained on the car ride home one evening. “And one thing I really like about school is that I can get a hug if I feel like I need one.”

I once walked into the school to find a group of kids happily building a tower with wooden blocks – boys and girls, kinder-age to teenager. In an age of iPads, Instagram and too much too soon, it was both striking and charming.

You may be thinking all this freedom and happy block building seem too perfect, too good to be true. Don’t get me wrong, our daughter does have moments of struggle and sometimes there are tears. They’re not just hers. As her parents we also struggle and make mistakes because it’s hard, sometimes really hard, to change the mindsets and take the steps back that a school like Revel requires. But struggle is good; it brings growth.

I don’t know how it will all turn out, but I know that in a short time I’ve seen this kid master and make big gains in a range of academic, practical and people skills. She’s happy. She’s confident. We’re learning.

Revel seems special, like what school should and could be.

It’s a safe place where kids love learning and each other. Where they work hard and play hard. Where they’re allowed to make mistakes and get back up. Where they’re simultaneously challenged and supported.

According to our daughter, nothing is ever boring at Revel.

And one evening, as I tucked my little Rebel into bed, the gold and black blazer hanging on her door, she whispered… “Do you know what place inspires me most? School.”