Alumni Award: Rick Ackerly

By Mayze T. 

Out of the 3,000 or so Country School alumni in the world, one is chosen each year to receive the Alumni Award, recognizing him or her for achievements in a field. This year a man named Rick Ackerly received the award. He transferred to Country School in the sixth grade, graduating about fifty years ago. His message for students is “everything you know about success is wrong; you should do what is in your heart.” His first job was teaching math in Virginia for two years. He then went on to teach history at Eaglebrook School for four years. Although he enjoyed teaching, he wanted to do something else. He went back to school to get a Masters in Education and decided to consult a career counselor. The counselor told him to help in a Catholic school that was going co-ed. He decided that this was a good plan and became the headmaster. He remained as headmaster for eight years, until the school got on its feet. He went to many other schools that were, to use his words, “on the rocks,” and helped them turn around. He claims that although he has been successful with the schools he has also had many failures. He says, “Failure is just as important [as success] if you learn and grow.” His most recent endeavor was a book that he wrote. He first began to write ten years ago, when he woke up with a poem in his head. He then began to write daily, trying to finish a report a week. He finally decided that he should make a book. His book, The Genius in Children, means not genius in the sense of a prodigy, but genius in the sense of the spirit of a person or place. He believes that children are “getting prisons instead of schools. It is an inconvenient truth; education has gotten worse and worse. We are a country in crisis. Teaching is the place to go if you really want to make a difference.”