Elliot Washor's TGIF 04.11.2025

“Are you with me now” A J Ryder

We Cover the Waterfront –

How can you be in two places at once? Well, you do it if you are a ‘we’ instead of an ‘I’. This week in San Diego at ASU GSV and in Los Angeles at the VerdeXchange we had quite a presence. Of course, at ASU GSV we loom large but at the VerdeXchange we certainly held our own on a panel and with our Harbor Freight Fellows seen below.

For BPL, the ASU GSV festivities started on Sunday evening at our home. Around 40+ people showed up and once again everyone remarked how different a home vs a hotel makes for mingling. For many, Sunday evening set the tone for the rest of the conference. Over the next three days, there were many highlights but as always Leadership Journeys blew everyone away. Timothy Jones and Mickey Breeze always set the tone and tempo and the presentations of Meisha Porter, Pedro Noguera and Erin Whalen were both playful and serious all at once. As usual Carlos’ presence as host was sublime. Surprises change the tempo of events and in this case the special guest appearance of Colin Kaepernick added loads to this Leadership Journey.  Congratulations to the team including Chris Jackson and Karla Cruz Godoy who do the behind-the-scenes production in making it all happen.

At this ASU GSV conference. Carlos wore many hats. I was able to attend a few of his talks. There were many memorable lines but one thing he said that really struck me was when he was asked about the new policies being put in place by the current administration. There was way more to his response but the gist of it was “policies push back and culture pushes forward.” Considering that so much of the rest of this conference was not about culture, relationships or our humanity nor was it about how to actually work with and connect to youth, Carlos’ remarks resonated with many in the audience.

Do we know more and more about less and less?

The A.I. theme at ASU GSV was all the buzz with tech entrepreneurs and many educators. Words like efficiency, productivity, cost-effectiveness were all treated as if they were the outcomes we are looking for. When people talked about learning they would attribute human qualities to Artificial Intelligence. In these talks AI thinks and AI feels. Does anyone pay attention to artificial as the adjective describing this sort of intelligence? Yes, there are some very practical uses for AI but learning and relationships take time and by the way - What’s your hurry? Where do you want to go? What do you want to get away from? For me, I don’t mind spending time doing things to learn how to do something well. Some of those things might be quite hard to do and some are really easy but I get a sense using my senses that I’m grappling with things that mean something to me, my family, friends and community.

Learning at the Speed of Light - Really?

Once again so many are looking toward technology to be THE answer to so many of our problems in engaging students in school. Can A.I. help us find meaning? Here’s a few things to ponder:

• Slowness is fundamental to quality

• Nature doesn’t work on the principle that fast is better.

• Acceleration is a trend, not a law

“The numbing of America is the state in which we become so far removed from the processes by which our artifacts are made that we don’t understand either them or ourselves.” Ralph Caplan

Just a few more things...

Today, I was at a BPL Guided Experience at the San Diego Met with schools from Santa Barbara, NYC and Chicago. Our students were just incredible doing debriefs about the internships that the groups went to yesterday. The different perspectives shared by educators from these places led to really rich and engrossing questions and conversations around the things that matter like knowing each and every student well and the difference the difference makes when students own their learning.

Andrea and I had a couple of really good Zooms. One with a group from Panama about starting schools and B-U’s using the IBPLC and the other with Northeastern and the National Association for College Counseling about the role they can play as partners going forward with the IBPLC.

The last thing is a conversation I had with board member David Gersten and then Jeff Palladino Fannie Lou Hamer principal. It turns out that about a year ago, David was at a BPL board meeting at The Hub where students from our schools in NYC came to talk with board members. Jeff pulled David aside and said, you got to meet Nassir, a student at Fannie Lou and see his drawings. When they met Nassir told David he wanted to apply to Cooper Union’s summer architecture program for high school students but at $3500 the cost was prohibitive. David made up his mind that no matter what Nassir was going to that program and so, it was. David supported Nassir and he got in with a scholarship. Fast forward, to the present and Nassir was accepted to Cooper Union. David knew nothing about Nassir applying. All that said, Nassir had extraordinary talent (The What) but without supportive adults in his life like Jeff and David (the Who) as part of his journey this is not gonna happen. ‘nuff said.

Be well!