Promoting Excitement for Learning: Embracing Discomfort to Transform the School Experience at Pelham Lab High School

Jason Wagner • Cahn Fellow 2022

How can a school community support belonging, joy and social-emotional learning in all students? At Pelham Lab High School we’ve spent the last year taking a rigorous look at ourselves, our teachers, our systems and our students to improve the daily experience of “school” for all students. Post-COVID, we’ve had to reimagine what education looks like and feels like for students by asking challenging questions: How do we get students excited about our school and learning? How can we develop our students as a whole? In the process we’ve learned that asking the right questions, conducting honest conversations grounded in data and examining our values and mission for our school are essential in informing our ongoing journey of school improvement. 

As a direct result of Cahn Fellows conversations and workshops we’ve been more able to engage in honest and vulnerable adult conversations that get to the core issues of why and how we are doing our work in our school as well as how we can imagine a better school in the future. This examination has come in the form of wondering who we are as individual leaders and teachers as well as how our leadership styles are interacting with each other and influencing our overall school environment. 

Finally, as a school that, since its founding, has believed in consistent SEL supports we’ve decided not to take what we’ve established for  granted but to further examine our supports for effectiveness and student voice. We’ve found that asking tough questions of ourselves and our school community has provided us with a way forward.