“Are you with me now” A J Ryder
Nashville Cats
The BPL Guided Experience for the Deeper Learning group turned out to be a memorable one. After Principal Brenda Diaz and Assistant Principal Gary Hook of Nashville Big Picture explained the workings of the school, I went into the Wayback Machine and told the story of how the school got started. All through the day both in and outside of school, the students and staff were great hosts. We ended up seeing both in-house and out of school LTI’s. Case in point, before going to his LTI at Tennessee State University (TSU), Nashville BPL student Alonzo Rhodes prepared us for his internship by doing his Senior Exhibition. Then we got into our cars and visited Alonzo at Tennessee State University’s AI/ Virtual Reality/Robotics labs. He knew as much about the lab as any adult there. Back at BPL Nashville we also met with three students who were employed by the district to work in the communications and design department. It was great to see a district put their money where their mouth is and utilize students in district business. The designs and innovations the students came up with are being used by the district and the district staff had nothing but praise for their work. It was a great look at the power of real-world learning from the perspective of all these mentors from TSU and Metro Nashville Public Schools.
In the afternoon, an old friend of BPL’s, Chris Reynolds came by and then, to our surprise Jeff Palladino the principal of Fannie Lou Hamer in the Bronx. Jeff was in town because his daughter goes to college in Nashville. So now we had Jeff and Chris also participating in a consultancy led by Sonn on the next iteration of the Deeper Learning Network. There was also time for Chris to support Alexis Gwin Miller from Memphis who is starting a BPL school and a B-U program.
Jeff’s LinkedIn post summed the time up beautifully:
Amazing thing about being part of an international network like Big Picture Learning for the past 20+ years is that you develop relationships with people that you don’t work with on a daily basis. You get to work with people periodically and see their impressive practices and transformative communities. It’s an unbelievable perk to know there are brilliant people out there doing the right work. International parallel play. Thanks to Sonn Sam, Ed. D Elliot Washor Brenda Diaz, Ed.D and Gary Hook Ed.S. for letting me visit Nashville Big Picture yesterday, always inspiring.
One last note: It was only a week or so ago that Nashville staff went on a Guided Experience to Fannie Lou and now Jeff showed up.
As Brenda said about visiting and learning from one another: “Iron sharpens iron.”
This past Saturday I had my annual meeting with Mathew Chen, a pen nib grinder, I’ve been watching Mathew grow and develop for more than 5 years. Mathew started as an apprentice to Mike Matsuyama who retired just this year. Grinding pen nibs is very personal. Each pen is different and of course each hand is different but when you get the ink to flow just right from a grind you can watch people’s reaction turn into joy. I know it sounds just a bit nuts but I’ve watched this happen with shoemakers fixing shoes and others in these more rarified trades that deal with personal objects that turn people to mush extolling the skills of the maker/fixer/fabricator. It doesn’t matter if it is a garment or a guitar, not only does everyone get mutual joy out of these experiences but for the fixer, fixing also pays well. Usually, it takes a nib grinder no more the 30 minutes to bring that joy through the flow of ink from your pen to your hand and et voila you fork over $60. That’s $120 an hour with no overhead where you are probably making close to $1000 a day. The sign-ups for Matt’s work start at 6 am. Anyone want their nib ground?
At pen shows, nib grinding is not the only craft. People make ink, paper, pens, notebooks, tools and more. All of these objects are combining beauty and utility in the eyes, hearts and hands of the beholder. Lately, there are more and more young people showing up at these conferences. It seems like they are discovering the pleasure you can get from using your hands to handwrite. Both the look and feel and what unfurls from your mind/body together connects the physical/mental and emotional – head/heart/hand that produces meaning and friendships. Nowadays, writing to most has become a drudgery but I feel that so many are now gaining an understanding of not just taking notes for the sake of taking notes but taking notes to make something beautiful, meaningful and memorable.
Out and about…
Every week there are new connections to our work being made. B-U and Harbor Freight Fellows deepened the relationship with Model Z, a prefab manufacturer for affordable housing in Los Angeles. There were loads of industry, youth development and school partners connecting to our work in San Diego. Andrew Coburn is working on his Walk in the Park book on advisory in third spaces framed by BPLiving. It will be ready for Big Bang adventures to Roger Williams Park. And Namahana is busy hiring staff with an article by Kapua coming out in Kappan. I’ve been on calls all week with new collaborations like Mosaic and of course the trip to Australia is getting closer and closer. Viv and Andrea led the first Zoom with our group of travelers orienting them to what we will be doing around the IBPLC and B-U.
Putting pencil and pen all together for Black History Month
Most of you know that I not only go to pen conferences for pens but also there is a small group promoting the pencil and with my subscription to the BLACKWING, I’m firmly in that camp. BLACKWING 602’s were used by John Steinbeck, Quincy Jones, Chuck Jones and loads of other famous writers and artists. This month in celebration of Black History month the commemorative pencil was for Bill Russell celebrating both his athletic career and his contributions as a civil rights advocate. His commemoration appears on the packaging and the pencil is black and green with the number 11 embossed on it for his 11 championships. Thirty years ago, I met Bill Russell at an education conference where I took our students from our first graduating class to Philadelphia. I gave most of them out to students and staff in Nashville.
Next week, I’m visiting Shannon and Freddie in Sonoma
Be well
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