School Shoutout

A Joyful Revolution

It's just another ordinary day in rural Indiana. At a local elementary school, a fifth grade class is studying the American Revolution. But at Eastern Hancock Schools, any day could turn out to be extraordinary. Suddenly, a military officer in a tricorn hat rides by the classroom window on horseback yelling, “The British are coming!” The students jump up and gleefully point at Paul Revere on his midnight ride. 

On this day, the role of Revere is played by a high school student atop a horse her family loaned the school. “The things I’ve had to give permission for you would not believe,” says Dr. George Philhower, Eastern Hancock’s superintendent. “Like: Where do we keep a horse overnight?” Why? Because Eastern Hancock Schools employs a full-time “joy integration specialist,” a person whose job it is to orchestrate experiences like this one to make education fun and memorable. 

“If you pay attention to the gravity of what’s happening in the world, specifically with education, it’s not necessarily pulling us toward a place of joy,” Philhower explains. “School is not a place right now that people are looking forward to going to. If we’re going to cause joy to happen in our schools, it’s going to have to be intentional.” 

Finding a Dreamweaver
The idea of hiring a joy integration specialist came to Philhower after he read restaurateur Will Guidara’s book Unreasonable Hospitality. In it, Guidara details one fateful night that completely changed how he ran his business. He overheard a table of visitors in his four-star restaurant say they had meant to try a New York City hot dog, but they were leaving town the next morning. So Guidara sprinted down the street and bought one, surprising them with it at the end of their extravagant meal. As he tells it, the diners were so caught off guard and delighted by the gesture that Guidara then hired what he called a “dreamweaver”—someone who could recreate this type of moment for customers on a regular basis.  

Philhower later discussed the book with Bethany Stacey, a kindergarten teacher at the district who had also read it. “She said, ‘Hey, we need a dreamweaver, and I have the perfect person for it,’” Philhower says. That person was (coincidentally) named Stacey Jones. 

Jones has worked for Eastern Hancock Schools for 15 years now. Until two years ago, she served as the high school’s athletic secretary, but her talent for creating joy was wasted at a desk job. Stacey knew this all too well—Jones had often volunteered to help her create special moments for her kindergarten class.

“Ms. Stacey would come to me and say, ‘I want to do Polar Express. How can we make this happen?’” Jones says. “So I would figure out how to turn a bus garage into a Polar Express station so that when we drove the kindergartners out there, they would feel like they were going to visit Santa Claus. That’s how it got started—just coming up with crazy ideas and making school fun for the kids.” Now, Jones is coming up with those “crazy ideas” full time.

Bringing Dreams to Life
Jones’ role as joy integration specialist empowers teachers to share their joy with students. “It’s not hard to convince people that they should add some fun to their lessons, but teachers already have pretty full plates. They could use some help pulling off some of the things that they dream of doing,” Philhower says. “So we’re trying to think about what we can do to make their lives just a smidge easier.” 

But teachers aren’t the only beneficiaries of Jones’ talents. “This morning we decided to pass out donuts to all of the parents in the drop-off line—partially for World Kindness Week and partially to thank our parents for all of their support,” she says. Not surprisingly, families have responded really positively to Jones’ work—and not just because of the free donuts. As Philhower states, parents just want to know that their kids are being looked after and loved by the adults charged with taking care of them.

And perhaps most importantly, joyful moments can actually spark real academic benefits for students. “A lot of times, kids go home and their parents ask them, ‘What’d you do at school?’ And they say, ‘I don’t know.’ They don’t remember,” says Philhower. “Our kids go to school 180 days a year, and a lot of that time, they’re on autopilot.” Imagine your commute to and from work. Every day it’s the same. However, Philhower points out, if you’re driving back from work and you see a grizzly bear, you’re going to remember that trip home. (Especially if you live somewhere without any grizzly bears—like Indiana.) Likewise, the surprising, joyful moments that Jones creates are designed to jolt students out of autopilot and engage them in school. “We believe that emotion cements learning, so how kids feel while they’re learning is just as important as what they’re learning,” Philhower says.

If you’re a school leader reading this, you might be thinking: That sounds great, but my district can’t afford to hire nonessential personnel right now. The Eastern Hancock team would argue that Jones’ work is essential—and they didn’t need to hire anyone new to do it. “This wasn’t a new position we created,” Philhower clarifies. “So it’s not costing us any more money.” The district simply shifted Jones’ role. “And even in my projects, a lot of times there’s no added expense,” says Jones. “It’s just a matter of finding materials around school and reusing things.” 

But none of this would have been possible had Philhower and his team not reconsidered how best to use Jones’ talents. “That’s where good administration comes in,” says Jones. “They saw me sitting there for years, just pushing a pencil and counting money, until they said, ‘Wait a minute. We need you to do this instead.’ So a lot of it is admin knowing their people and seeing what they can do.”

And rethinking how you operate is something Philhower believes any school leader can do. “Stacey just had some really unique talents. She’s phenomenal at this,” he says. “I would challenge any leader to look at the staff members across their district—inside or outside the classroom—and think about what talents they might have and what kind of work they would be excited to do.” 

Photo courtesy of Eastern Hancock Schools

Something for Everyone
One of the first big events Jones suggested was an “Everybody’s Birthday” party. During summer break, Jones runs a camp for at-risk youth—where she has realized how many children don’t get to really celebrate their birthdays. So one day a year, every student and staff member in the district receives cake and a gift. They’re also treated to a surprise performance—last year, it was a magic show. “Some of the big kids roll their eyes at us, but we know they like it,” Philhower says. And because the event costs a little more money than many of the smaller moments of joy Jones creates, the district secures sponsorships from local businesses to help pay for the goodies. 

Bringing joy to the older kids—the ones sometimes rolling their eyes—has been a bit more challenging. “When kids are little, it’s easy. They love to have fun,” says Jones. “But we’ve had to ask ourselves what we can do for the big kids to make them excited about school.” The answer, as Jones and Philhower have learned, is to involve them in creating joyful moments for the younger ones. After all, “the joy for the person who’s doing the whimsical, silly thing is probably more than the person who’s receiving it,” Philhower says. For instance, a high school German class had a blast helping Jones put on a Weihnachten (Christmas) celebration for the second graders last year. “That’s my main way of including the high schoolers right now—by having them help spread the joy,” Jones says. 

Some of the biggest events that Jones and Philhower collaborate on aren’t for the students, though. Every year, the district holds a two-day summer conference they call, unsurprisingly, “Joy Jam.” The free event for educators draws hundreds of attendees from across the state and even farther afield. “Our Department of Education helps us fund it, and over time we’ve drawn quite a bit of attention. So we’ve had people from all over the country at Joy Jam,” Philhower says.

In addition to some incredible speakers, the conference is sprinkled with fun, joyful features like a puppy room and a petting zoo. As part of their initial registration, attendees are asked to share their favorite snacks—all of which are then stocked for them to munch on between sessions. “It’s like if you could mash together a craft fair, an education conference and a circus,” jokes Philhower. And it’s a rare chance for teachers and administrators to feel like kids again. 

Philhower knows that staff retention is hard—and that fewer and fewer people are becoming  teachers to begin with. That’s why he and Jones make a point of delivering joy to new hires, too. When any new teacher is offered a position, they meet with Philhower to discuss district values. What they don’t know is that the district has invited their family and friends to campus for a surprise signing party after the meeting. “That’s probably one of my favorite things we do,” he says. 

Long-Lasting Joy
According to Philhower, over 40% of Eastern Hancock’s student body comes from outside of the district—and the percentage of transfer students is higher than it’s ever been. He believes the promise of joy is a big draw to potential enrollees. But it’s more than good marketing. “It’s truly what we think is best for kids and grown-ups,” he says.

But Philhower believes joy is much bigger than a surprise visit from Paul Revere. “Our best hope is that when we’re doing those silly, fun things that people take a step closer to the real work that’s happening in our classrooms—the connection and growth and success,” he says. “That’s where true, long-lasting joy really lives.” 

And if giving joy is the most joyful feeling of all, Jones is one happy woman. “How can you not smile when you’ve got 50 kids coming up to hug you and give you a high-five?” asks Jones. “I enjoy coming to school every day.” It’s a sentiment she and Philhower hope every student at Eastern Hancock shares.