For this episode, our host, Shannon Falkenstein, speaks with Anne Olderog, an Acton Founder who has an impressive wealth of knowledge on education. She is also a Partner at Vivaldi, leading projects on growth/innovation strategy, positioning and brand architecture. She works with education companies such as Blackboard or McGraw-Hill to ensure that today and tomorrow’s learners get the very best that education can offer.

Anne holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, an M.A. in International Studies from the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an M.Phil in Management from Cambridge University. She is a Laureate of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) in Paris, where she earned a B.A. in Economics & Finance. Prior to her business career, Anne received a B.A. in French Literature at the Sorbonne in Paris and researched policy issues for the French Parliament. She is fluent in 6 languages and consulted major corporations in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Italy.

In her (scarce) free time, she enjoys blogging on changes in education, engaging in virtual bike races, training her dogs and losing to her son in ping pong.

Key Takeaways:

2:56 - Anne shares her story on how she started a school for her daughter

15:17  - On encouraging learning

17:44 -  Teaching Compliance VS Self-Sufficiency

19:11 -  Education can be a game

22:44 - Cultivating Children’s unique creative minds and equipping them to be the leaders of tomorrow

24:42 -  Anne’s advice to parents

28:25 -  What Acton Academy Verona is like

39:11 -  Dealing with Covid

48:59 -  Being Vulnerable in front of our children and role model how to deal with challenges, how we can take risks and how we can learn from our mistakes

53:45 -  Anne’s thoughts about college

56:32 - A metaphor that can help parents understand the microschool movement and the big seismic changes in education

Quotes and Tips

• The best thing we could do for our children is equip them with meta skills that will enable them to be great with people, be great leaders,  create following, articulate their ideas and ultimately be lifelong learners.
  
• The best thing you can do as Acton parents is unpush your own buttons.
  
• Learning needs to be as engaging as social media or else we’d lose their attention very quickly to video games.
  
• Ultimately, we want to educate citizens who are self-sufficient and who are equipped to make their own decisions and really contribute to the society in a meaningful way.
  
• Educating is so exciting in itself that we adults simply need to step back and let it shine.
  

Mentioned Links:

Anne’s Article about Covid19- https://vivaldigroup.com/en/blogs/covid-19-changing-education/

Allison Gopnik - Gardener and Carpenter - https://www.amazon.com/Gardener-Carpenter-Development-Relationship-Children/dp/1536617830

Acton Academy Verona:

http://www.actonacademyverona.org/