Inner Strength at George Washington High School, Philadelphia

Inner Strength has enjoyed bringing our teen program to thousands of high school students over the years and we love being able to share stories from those experiences. This year, George Washington High School, home of another Philadelphia Eagles football team, has been practicing Inner Strength tools across the Freshman and Senior classes and focusing on teamwork and collaboration. To keep inspiring students, instructor Haylee Warner had her classes create commitments for collaboration and friendship, which became the feathers of a large eagle, now displayed on a central bulletin board for all the students to see. Fly Eagles Fly with this Caring Eagle!

Awareness & The Energy Between People
reflections on a class from Haylee Warner

In it had been hard to get focus from the students this semester and my time with them was rapidly coming to a close.Towards the end of the program with my freshman Inner Strength class at George Washington High, I taught a lesson that asks the students to stretch their thinking by contemplating unanswerable questions. “Where do thoughts come from?’ ‘What is consciousness?’ The goal was to collectively build our definitions together.

During the exercise, I gathered input from the students and challenged them to build off of each other’s answers — even to disagree and respectfully pose alternative ideas to these big topics.

One student sat with her head down, a hoodie completely obstructing her face from view. When I asked her what consciousness was, not expecting her to have been paying attention. she sat straight up, pushed her off her face and said,

“Consciousness is the feeling of being aware and the energy between people.'”

It was an amazing moment. The girl’s friend exclaimed, “Dang, that’s profound!!” And the rest of the class clicked in, more curious and awake, as their own thinking expanded.

It was a really great moment for the class as we synthesized our learning experience over the semester.

2023, classroom techniques, compassion, cultivating good qualities, inner strength, inner strength teen program, Inner Strength Vibe, mindfulness, mindfulness in schools, teaching, teen mindfulness