What Progressive School Education Really Means at Olney
When Head of School Christian Acemah first applied to Olney Friends School as a teenager, one word in the admissions materials stopped him cold: progressive. He had to ask what it meant.
The answer he received was simple but profound: a progressive school deals with students as whole human beings: spirit, mind, and body.
But at Olney, they reverse the typical order. “Spirit first,” Christian explains, recalling what drew him to the school years ago and what now guides his work there as an educator.
Today, as progressive education faces both renewed interest and ongoing debates about its implementation, Olney Friends School offers a living example of what these principles look like in practice. Their approach goes beyond the theoretical frameworks outlined by John Dewey and other educational reformers; it’s a daily commitment to putting students at the center of every decision.
Beyond the Buzzword: What Progressive School Education Really Means at Olney
At Olney, being a progressive school means consistently asking one critical question: “What will best serve the students?” This question surfaces in every faculty meeting, especially when discussions veer off track. It’s a decision-making framework that shapes everything from curriculum choices to community policies.
The progressive approach at Olney includes:
- Whole-person focus: Addressing spirit, mind, and body (with spirit first)
- Student-centered decisions: Faculty consistently asking “What will best serve the students?”
- Values-based evaluation: Report cards emphasizing how teenagers develop as people, not just academic metrics
- Spiritual development: Discussing spirituality (not religion) as part of student growth
- Emotional investment: Significant advisory work keeping the community “alive and kicking”
Christian reads every single comment on student report cards before families receive them. “If I were a parent receiving this report card, I would know that my child is actually very well cared for, and that the child is learning how to lead with values,” he reflects. The evaluations focus on how teenagers are developing as whole people, people who will eventually need to make difficult decisions or stand up for what’s right, even when standing alone.
A Transformation Story: The “Third Way” in Action
One recent story illustrates how Olney’s progressive approach works in practice. A new student arrived after being expelled from her previous school. She told faculty and staff plainly: this was her last chance with her family. Yet initially, she did everything the school asked students not to do, self-sabotaging behaviors that violated the community agreements she’d read in the handbook.
Christian watched as something shifted. The student gradually realized her advisor and teachers weren’t adversaries but advocates. Even the teachers she initially found “so hard on her” were teaching with intention, asking to meet with her not to punish but to support.
“It’s like night and day with this student,” Christian marvels. “It’s amazing how far in just a few months the student has come.”
But here’s what makes this a genuinely progressive story rather than simply a turnaround narrative: the transformation went both directions. The student didn’t just conform to Olney’s existing culture. She introduced new phrases into the student vocabulary, broadened how her peers thought about the world, and changed the community even as it changed her.
“It is that give and take and learning through interaction without having to force someone into a straitjacket,” Christian explains. “Not either/or, it’s that third way. Let’s find a third way we all benefit.”
When Christian ran into this student recently, he had news to share: she had zero midterm comments. These are the alerts sent to families when students struggle academically—and when she first arrived, every teacher had written one. “Look how things have changed just like that,” Christian told her. “You are an inspiration. You are a real story of why we exist.”
Community as the Core Value
Ask Olney alumni what they remember most about their high school years, and one word comes up repeatedly: community. Not the classes, not the campus, but the community.
As one former student named Ari put it shortly before graduation: “If you want to learn how to live in the world, you need to come and be part of this community, because there is no community as touchy as this one. By the time you learn how to deal with everyone’s needs in this community, you can deal with anything in the world.”
Christian laughed when he first heard this, but he’s found it completely accurate. Later, at the United Nations, working with people from around the world, a colleague once told him he had a remarkable ability to work with difficult people, individuals no one else wanted on their teams. Christian traces that skill directly back to Olney’s community-centered approach, where everyone’s value is recognized even when personalities clash.
What community-centered learning looks like at Olney:
- Every voice is consulted before major decisions
- Students learn to see value in people they might initially find challenging
- Faculty meetings prioritize student needs over administrative convenience
- The community adapts to accommodate new perspectives, not just demand conformity
- Students develop skills for working with diverse viewpoints and personalities
This commitment to community leads to what Christian calls “Quaker time,” the sometimes-frustrating process of consulting everyone before making decisions. “It takes forever to make a decision, but once it’s made, everyone knows why that decision is made that way, including those who don’t support the decision.” The inclusive process matters as much as the outcome.
Giving Students a Chance: Built Into the DNA
At its core, Olney’s progressive philosophy reflects what Christian identifies as essential to the school’s DNA: giving students a chance.
“It’s very, very difficult for us to admit a student without the understanding that we are going to give this student as big a chance as possible to make the best of what we have to offer,” Christian explains.
Many faculty members have their own healing stories that led them to the school. They found their place at Olney, healed from past traumas, and are now committed to creating the same opportunity for teenagers who arrive with their own challenges or face uncertain futures.This year brought more new students than returning ones, creating friction as perspectives collided. Christian sees this as an opportunity rather than an obstacle: What does it actually mean in practice to want diversity and inclusion? “It means accommodating as many of those voices as possible and making the changes required to accommodate them, beyond any jingles or surface-level cosmetic changes.”
Progressive Education for an Urgent Moment
The world right now is, as Christian puts it, “literally and metaphorically on fire.” Olney’s response? Look backward to move forward.
The school has always been a refuge. One current board member still talks about how his mother brought him and his sister to Olney decades ago—she feared for their lives in the South. That same mission continues today. Parents are bringing their kids to Olney to keep them safe from immigration raids. International families trust the school to shelter their teenagers during unstable times.
“We take it as a real honor to have them on campus and keep them here securely,” Christian says, “and also infuse the values that they will need to function” in these challenging times.
Progressive education here isn’t abstract philosophy. It’s practical. It’s the student who arrived as her “last chance” and left thriving. It’s faculty members who remember their own healing at Olney and extend that same possibility to the next generation. It’s a community that asks “What will best serve the students?” and actually means it.
Christian sees that transformed student, the one who went from breaking every rule to becoming an inspiration, as proof of concept. She’s why Olney exists: to give teenagers the chance to become people who lead with values, who stand up when it matters, and who recognize worth in everyone they meet.
Would you like to see what a progressive school education could look like for your teen? Connect with Olney Friends School in Barnesville, Ohio.
