“Are you with me now” A J Ryder
A funny thing happened on the way to Edgecombe County, North Carolina where Carrie Duff invited me to visit a school district that is immersing itself in Big Picture practices. As a footnote this journey to Edgecombe started at the TYBO retreat up at Dennis’ in Winchester, NH where we discussed going there as follow-up activity of the retreat. I love when there’s an action coming out of a retreat.
Over the course of the first day at the school, I met with students, staff and Superintendent Andrew Bryan. The students like students everywhere had personal interests they were addressing outside of school but for the most part inside of school with the exception of advisory time these interests were aligned only by chance and not yet by design. There’s lots of good work to do here and plenty of good people to do it with.
A key person in the change process here is Jessica Parker who is a Jeanes Teaching Fellow. I never heard of Jeanes Fellows so when I asked her about them, I was surprised to learn that Anna Jeanes, a philanthropist from Philadelphia got together with Book T. Washington and created Jeanes Fellows to do the professional development for teachers of Rosenwald Schools. Although Rosenwald Schools are gone, Jeanes Fellows remain. If you put this altogether you can see our work in a past life. Jeanes Fellows were similar in design to BPL school coaches. They coached a network of Rosenwald Schools that were small community schools. Hmmm?
I’m never sure what it means when you get interested in something and all of a sudden it keeps on appearing in front of you but I do think there is really something here that we can learn from. Does looking at the past move us forward? Should all communities have small schools in their communities and not large comprehensives that are 20 miles away from where you are from? Shades of Namahana. Shouldn’t these small schools reflect the kind of teacher professional development of Jeanes Fellows and Big Picture School coaches? We are riding the cusp of a new wave of education where schools like Rosenwald are neither public nor private. I’m gonna keep on looking into this one. Who knows where we might come out?
These past two days I was in Los Angeles where our Harbor Freight Fellows/B-U team was meeting with companies large and small introducing them to these initiatives. These companies range from aviation to house fabrication to the water systems serving Los Angeles. The fires may have slowed our meetings down a bit but we are coming back strong. It was a full tilt two days of meetings and it was great to have Andrea have us over for dinner to relax and enjoy the evening.
One more thing ...
The other day Jeff Palladino from the Fannie Lou Hamer School in The Bronx sent me an email asking for an article connecting the hand and brain. I sent him Frank Wilson’s article that was really a talk he gave to NASA in 2004 to respond to the question: “In 20 years when we send a flight to Mars should it be a manned or an unmanned flight?” Frank’s response was prescient. In giving a history of our evolution Frank pointed out “what we think of as human intelligence is as deeply embedded in the hand as it is in the brain.’ Your so-called intelligence is not some number descriptive of a neuron or synapse count or a score on an IQ test, but the behavioral tool kit you built for yourself through experience.
All of this had and has implications for A.I. then and the A.I. work we are involved in now. Where is hand intelligence in A.I.? Nowhere. Frank’s article also touched on the role of the hand in people finding meaning in their lives and the role of intelligence and our evolution as sadly going from toolmakers to computer and information managers. This goes right into what makes us human that schools and CTE programs miss almost completely with their emphasis on workforce, employment data and keeping youth inside of schools with little emphasis on hands-on learning in the real world. It is enough to make you sick. I’m attaching Frank’s article to this week’s TGIF and I’m going to get Frank to Zoom in and discuss the ramifications of our work going forward. Anyone who wants to join is welcome but the bottom line for NASA around manned vs unmanned (A.I.) in 2004 and today is: “If you know what you are looking for send an unmanned craft.” This A.I. can do. But when you need someone to fix broken pipes and broken bones and all the things that can go wrong you have never dreamed of, these people bring exactly the developmental pedigree you need to maximize the chances of finding what you are not looking for. This A.I. can’t do and we can.
And finally… When I was in North Carolina, I was listening to a jazz station play, The Modern Jazz Quartet – MJQ. Percy Heath, one of the three Heath brothers, was MJQ’s bassist. I knew his accomplishments in music very well but what I didn’t know was that he was also one of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Happy Black History Month!
Next week, I’ll be in Winnipeg. Burr…. Cold hands … Warm heart!
Be well!
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