Eagle Bucks are the Acton Academy currency.  You earn them for brave or kind acts or by delivering excellent work on time; you lose them when a fellow Eagle asks for an Eagle Buck as a consequence for behavior that falls outside the community standards.

Early this year, we made an error by setting the rewards too high on the weekly points tracker.  Eagles who were reading several books at a time began ten or more Eagle Bucks a week, where two had been the norm.

Now getting called for an Eagle Buck meant less, because you had plenty to spare.  Community intentionality began to suffer.  What to do?  Just like the Fed, we decided to drain the excess reserves from the system and ask Eagles to trade in old currency for new.

When the new policy was first announced, one Eagle, remembering an economic simulation from last year, cried out: ‘But will that cause the Acton Great Depression?”

Thankfully, it didn’t.  We auctioned off the rights to some special desks; Eagles bought cardboard partitions they could use and decorate; a few special Lego creations drew high bids.  Inflation plummeted.

Today we exchanged the old currency for a new one, and tightened up the points system for earning new Eagle Bucks.  We also adopted a “three strikes” policy, setting serious consequences for Eagles whose behavior repeatedly left them with a negative balance. Then came a Socratic discussion about why Eagle Bucks were so important in our community.  some of the responses:

“So we can have our own currency.”

“To provide consequences.”

“To give us self-worth.”

“To reinforce that with freedom comes responsibilities.”

“It’s our system of rewards and punishment.”

“Motivation.”

“To keep us in check.”

“Compensation for our hard work.”

If only American Politicians understood the reasons for a free economy as well.  Perhaps someday soon we’ll have a much wiser generation to replace them.