April 6, 2026
By Aleta Margolis, Founder and President
Listen to the Hooray For Monday podcast for an audio version of this week’s issue.
Aleta posing with her print issue of the April 2026 Educational Leadership magazine
A Walton Family Foundation survey of high school students published in August 2025 found more than one-third of students couldn’t recall even one example of having learned something interesting in the last seven days.
That feedback from young people, coupled with ongoing challenges in meeting benchmarks, is a signal to me that doubling-down on age-old methods — like scripted curriculum, “teaching to the test,” and rigid teacher requirements—is not working.
Our students feel disengaged and they still struggle to make progress academically when we lean into teaching that centers only math and reading.
Fortunately, as teachers we have access to an infinite resource that is proven, time and again, to not only improve cognitive skills, but to also increase uncertainty tolerance, build community, and nurture an authentic love of learning:
Curiosity.
When we dig into our own curiosity—and school leaders create professional learning opportunities to support their teachers in this work—we set the stage for classrooms and school communities in which everyone can thrive.
I share a deep dive into this topic in my article in the April Issue of Educational Leadership (EL) magazine. In “Curiosity Starts With Us,” I share my own anecdote of what is possible when teachers lead with curiosity in the classroom and offer practical examples for integrating curiosity-led teaching into every school community.
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.
