Elliot Washor's TGIF 05.08.2026

Are you with me now? A J Ryder

“I believe in Starts. The rest is inevitable.” – Joey the Lips from The Commitments. – “The Lord blows my trumpet.”

This TGIF is as much about beginnings as it is about “still muddling through.” At first glance, those ideas may seem contradictory, but this week they felt completely connected for me. My time in New Jersey with Charlie was all about both starting something new and working through the uncertainty that comes with it. In fact, our new BPL/Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (EASRCC) initiative is called START — Skilled Trades Apprenticeship Readiness Training. Over the past month, we’ve been hiring staff while also putting the different programs in place that will launch this summer.

For me starting something from scratch and building from the ground up is the most exciting and creative work I do. I’ve been blessed to be part of so many beginnings. Sure, anyone can write a plan but getting in the weeds of making something happen on the ground is where I’m best. I don’t do well thinking my way to acting. I’m much better acting my way to thinking and there was lots of acting here to keep me thinking in new ways.

Our partnership with EASRCC feels unique because our vision and mission genuinely align around skilled trades, youth, dignity, and equity. It’s not performative alignment. It’s rooted in a shared belief that young people deserve meaningful pathways into lives of purpose and economic security. That became even more apparent when I was invited onto their podcast called The Labor Lounge, taped in Red Bank, the home of Count Basie.

Of course, I had to make a side trip to see the Count Basie Theater where, when I was eleven years old, I saw My Fair Lady and watched Fourth of July fireworks. Memory has a funny way of collapsing time. One moment I was sitting with labor leaders talking about the future of apprenticeships and youth opportunity, and the next I was remembering being a kid sitting in that same town looking up at fireworks.

On The Labor Lounge, guests are encouraged to “let go of performance and speak the truth.” Cohosts, Anthony Abrantes – Assistant Executive Secretary Treasurer of EASRCC, Cyndie Williams – Executive Director of the Carpenter Contractor Trust and I had a conversation about how we got here, what START can become, and where we are headed together. The show reminded me so much of Shameka and El Afterdark. It had that same relaxed vibe with very little pretense, where people get to substance through honest everyday conversation. Lounge really is the right word for it. I loved being part of it because it felt human.

The Skilled Trades Center in Edison, New Jersey, is remarkable. It is not only state-of-the-art in its design for apprenticeship programming but also of the art in the way it brings the industry together under one roof. Contractors, the union, and organizations connected to the construction industry all share the same space and now it will also serve as a START Center. There is brilliance in that design. Young people won’t just hear about the trades abstractly; they will walk into a living ecosystem where they can see how the whole industry functions. The environment itself becomes educational.

Charlie and I met with Dan Wright and Cindy there, and we were welcomed with real openness. Everyone seems committed to making START an innovative and meaningful experience for youth. I have to say Charlie is like a kid in a candy store around this work. His excitement is contagious.

Along with our partners, we are getting a strong response from schools, CTE centers, and youth development organizations that are sending us young people interested in enrolling in the program. That level of response tells me there is a real hunger for pathways that connect learning, work, and purpose in authentic ways.

What is exciting is that START is already influencing work beyond New Jersey. It is shaping our efforts in South Carolina and now in Virginia where Shameka has just been awarded a grant connected to Newport News Shipyard that will become a B-Unbound site. Once people start learning together and sharing the tricks of the trades they are still muddling through themselves, new possibilities emerge naturally. That’s the thing about starts. They rarely stay contained.

Of course, there was other emergent work happening all week as well. I did two additional podcasts for Catapult connected to a Master Class I recently did for their network. Keven Fleming did a terrific job keeping the conversation lively and engaging for participants who wanted to learn more about BPL. I also joined a California Secondary School Redesign network call with Taylor and Andrea where we discussed our summer gathering and how networks and districts can come together in more meaningful ways. Like much of this work, the ideas are still emerging, but they hold enormous promise.

I also did an interview with Sam Broun who is producing a series on Andrew’s Advisory twenty years after their graduation from The Met. My role was to reflect on what it took to get Big Picture Learning and The Met started—the struggles, the uncertainty, and the joy. Andrew made a wonderful decision asking Sam to be involved because she was actually part of the small team that conducted the original longitudinal study of Met students nearly two decades ago.

During our catch up I found myself meandering into a conversation about why the empirical findings from the Harvard Longitudinal Study documented in Triumphs of Experience are still not central to the data schools use to define success. The findings seem both profound and obvious:

• Relationships matter. Joy, love, and social connection are critical for long-term health and happiness.

• Habits formed early in life matter more than genetics when it comes to healthy aging.

• Resilience is real. People can recover from difficult childhoods and thrive.

• Mature coping strategies like humor, altruism, and channeling energy into meaningful work lead to better outcomes.

If you combine those findings with the becoming and outcomes analysis from last week and let AI make connections across the research, what emerges is a much broader understanding of flourishing. Human development is biological, relational, educational, emotional, and existential all at once. The deepest outcomes of education may not simply be measurable competencies but the cultivation of people capable of meaningful work, sustaining relationships, emotional resilience, contribution to community, and lifelong becoming.

The Harvard study gives longitudinal evidence to support what Big Picture Learning has always suggested: flourishing emerges through connection, purpose, adaptability, and engagement with others across the course of a lifetime.

Next week I’ll be in the Bay Area with Andrew, Carlos, Lynne, and William for meetings on the Impact Campaign and for our BPL Board meeting where Mychal and I will present the START work. Another beginning. More muddling. Still not yet through. And honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Be well and to all the moms, Happy Mother's Day!