October 12, 2026
By Eric Hollister Williams, Communications & Marketing Advisor
Listen to the Hooray For Monday podcast.
Can one song speak for a generation? At a Speak Truth session at the MLK Jr. Library in Washington, DC, students had different answers. Their conversation moved from Nirvana and Beyoncé to the songs they discover on social media, the lyrics they notice, and the music that connects them to family and friends.
In this week’s Hooray For Monday, we bring you into that conversation and hear Brady Maiden and Jenna Fournel reflect on what they learned by listening. For Jenna, a former high school teacher, the discussion offered a window into who the students are beyond the classroom.
Music was the starting point, but students also had something to say about learning. Asked what they wish teachers understood, one student said, “I think it should be like give and take instead of the teacher says everything.” Another explained that memorizing what a teacher says isn’t always enough to understand it.
Speak Truth meets after school, but this kind of exchange belongs in the school day, too. Center for Inspired Teaching is working with schools to bring the Speak Truth approach into the classroom and everyday learning.
A question students care about gives them practice expressing their thinking and listening to one another. It can also help teachers discover what motivates their learners and what matters to them outside class.
One thing to consider this week
Set aside 15 minutes to ask: Can one song speak for a generation? Let students discuss in small groups without requiring anyone to share a favorite song or a personal story. Then bring everyone back together and ask:
- What makes a song meaningful to you or to a group of people?
- Where did you hear a different perspective that got you thinking?
- Was there a perspective that made you curious in a way you didn’t expect?
The point of this activity is to make room for students to explain their thinking and for adults to listen and learn.
Resource of the Week
Listen Before You Respond (Activity)
Speak Truth asks participants to “listen to learn and not to respond.” Try making that practice visible in your classroom. Ask students in pairs: What makes a class discussion worth joining?
- Give each person one minute to answer without interruption.
- Before sharing their own view, the listener must begin, “What I heard you say is…” and ask one genuine follow-up question.
- Then switch roles.
Close the activity by asking what students understood better because they listened first. The goals isn’t agreement. It’s to give each student the experience of being heard and the practice of getting curious about someone else’s thinking.
Hooray For Monday is an award-winning weekly publication of Center for Inspired Teaching, a social change nonprofit organization that champions the power of curiosity and is dedicated to transforming the school experience from compliance-based to engagement-based. Inspired Teaching provides transformative, improvisation-based professional learning for teachers that is 100% engaging – intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
