Pendleton Heights Community School

is a one-room schoolhouse-style learning environment in Historic Northeast Kansas City designed to nurture the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being and growth of middle school-aged students (11-14 years old).

Middle school is often known as a transitional period in a child’s life, when they experience many changes to their bodies and begin to develop a sense of who they are and their place in this world, a time when their relationships— with themselves, their peers, and their community take on new meanings.

With each new season and change, transformation should be marked by community ritual and celebration. Instead, most middle school experiences are remembered as awkward and difficult, a time with more classes, teachers, and responsibilities but little time for play and curiosity, imagining new possibilities, and experiencing change in meaningful ways.

What is a radical education? It means grasping things at the root

A radical education is an understanding that in order to make sense of our world and solve its problems, we must be curious and go deep, see the interconnectedness of all our systems (e.g. natural, social, political, economic), and use every tool available (science, math, history, reading, writing, art) to find answers and solutions.

A radical education begins with the lived experiences of its students and their community.

A radical education is…

  • Rooted in intersectional, anti-racist thought with an emphasis on learning the histories of those whose stories have been erased from the dominant culture. 

  • A systems-based, interdisciplinary approach that allows students to understand how their unique experiences connect to others’ in the social, political, economic, and natural realms. 

  • Begins with students’ own questions and interests and problem-solving through advocacy research and implementation.

  • Centered around reflection and amplification of students’ voices in community spaces.

Dr. Jennifer Lacy

Founder & Educator

With over 10 years of teaching experience in public education in the Kansas City metro and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Dr. Jen Lacy creates interdisciplinary, design-based learning experiences rooted in the lived experiences of her students.

Each day, she and her students engage in a praxis in which they reflect and act upon their world. In the process, they and their community are transformed.