Elliot Washor's TGIF 02.13.2026

Are you with me now? A. J. Ryder

“I love this school!” These are the first words I heard as I entered Namahana School. They were an unsolicited exclamation of joy from a student.

Going from one island school, Beyond the Box to another Namahana has been a blessing. Last week in Barbados and this week on Kauai. Wow! Having the opportunity to do this trip made the similarities between the two schools even more pronounced and the work more important. Sometimes taking time to go from one place to the next is a great way to pause and reflect but in this case the speed of going from place to place made it seem like one place and I loved it. There’s a great deal of work to be done but that said in the six months since opening with all the bumps of starting a new school, they are off to a great start. Andrea has been a rock for the school in her coaching, facilitating, leadership and experience.

  More than a Big Picture School, Namahana is steeped in aina-based education with an underlayment of BPL design. The importance of aina (‘that which feeds’) is the foregrounding that you feel immediately when you enter the place. Their language is different for the same roles of teachers and students. The language of family and place become much more intentional and hold different meanings. Your entire psyche shifts to a different situated way of being. At Namahana, I experienced the day-to-day goings on at the school. The freedom of movement, the ability to choose, and the emphasis on who each and every student is becoming shined through their work. One activity I was part of was a gallery walk where students showed the how places they have lived impact them. Common themes were of family and community shined through all their work and their writing and attention to details was apparent. This was their work and schoolwork.

I’ll keep on writing about the new forms developed at our schools that are worthy of spread to our other schools. Although the term creative activation has been around for a while it was new to me until watching it come to life at Namahana where students had choices to make around staff, community members and parent leading activities for land use, cooking, drama, music, talking story and way more,

While on island I also had meetings with the Namahana Educational Foundation co-directors Bridget Thorpe and Sarah Wright and Namahana board president Marion Paul.  

Not so random thoughts

 What happens when something cannot be fixed? Nope, I’m not talking about the education system at least for the moment. Right now I’m talking about the NBA ‘ranking and tanking’ draft system. It sounds like such a small problem and a fixable one yet, there isn’t agreement on how to fix it because no matter what the new fixes are teams figure out how to game the system This is what harkens back to our k-16 education system that no matter what changes are made parents and schools figure out work arounds. Ask yourself, are legacy admissions still around? Is red-shirting still part and parcel of not just sports but academics? Is teaching to the test and pay to play tutoring available to some but not to all? There’s so much more. What happens when a system can’t be fixed or reformed? When do you start over with something completely new? Nuff said.

Next week, I’ll be back in San Diego visiting schools and at meetings for the IBPLC and internships.

Be Well