Elliot Washor's TGIF 07.25.2025

Are you with me now? A. J. Ryder

Well, the Big Bang 30^th Anniversary celebration of Big Picture Learning and The Met is officially OVER. Right now, I’m feeling grateful and joyful about seeing so many people but I still need more time to hash out all the remarkable things that transpired. In the meantime, I’m feeling like I want to share a few parts of my time at Leadership Journeys that I didn’t get to because the clock was ticking and we only had the room for the Gala till 10. So, here goes.

 This question was about what old El would say to young El? The funny thing is when you put more miles on there are a number of young El’s as witnessed here by these photos and while I was   noodling around with this question, I started addressing two of younger El’s.

Notes on photos:

As an infant I picked my head up way earlier than most babies and, in this photo, I was put in some kind of outfit that let my legs move but I couldn’t go anywhere. As legend goes, I was walking and talking at a very early age. In the other photo, I’m a 19-year-old in Prospect Park Brooklyn wearing basically the same attire I’m most comfortable wearing to this day – Black Cons, jeans and a t-shirt.

Here’s what I came up with for advice to these young El’s:

Always “Give Love first.”

George Clinton said, “Free Your mind and your ass will follow.”

And, El adds: “Free your ass and you mind will follow”

Don’t get ‘ized.’ The process of Izing is doing something to someone or something. Learning should be personal NOT personalized. Then, there’s industrialized, digitized, homogenized, dehumanized, sanitized and all those other izings that now include AIized.

Don’t be judged by outcomes. Become becomes.

Acceleration is a trend, not a law. Slowness is fundamental to quality. If you are going fast, wait for your spirit and soul to catch up to your body.

Learn how hard it is to do something well. It will take you a lifetime.

The next prompt was: Name a student in your life who influenced you.

There were so many but, in this case, I had to be honest and pick my son Michael who also went to The Met.

Here’s the photo:

Mike’s favorite saying was “Give Love First.” It is written on his headstone. This phrase became the header of a chapter in Carlos’ book, Finding Your Leadership Soul. Our souls live on in many ways and I’m grateful that Los knew Mike and chose that phrase to start that chapter his book.

Here’s a quick story about Mike

When his older brother Nate went into the military as a Mountain Division Ranger, they gave him an IQ test and he scored very high. Mike found out about it and because he was competitive with his brother, he decided to pay to get an IQ test. Turns out he scored higher than Nate. When he told Nate that he scored higher, he asked Nate if he thought dad would score higher than both of them. Nate said, “No, but he’s smarter.” Nuff said about how I feel about getting standardized by a test. For me, it’s how you are smart, not how smart you are to a test. You can’t measure what really matters.

A few more things….

I had a great Leave to Learn with Beth’s advisory to Roger Williams Park where we were met by Advisor Andrew and Alum Jasmin. They showed us the value of having an advisory in the park using BPLiving measures on a daily basis. Andrew’s new book, A Walk In the Park Makes a Path to Wellness is a gem for educators, parents and communities. It is a testament to the use of third spaces.

We had another great time at Shameka and El After dark. This was our fourth After Dark. We will bebe doing both live and podcast formats this year.

For about 20 years, I’ve wanted to do a Flicks and Clicks session. I finally did one and it was great. People brought their Flicks and we all riffed on what clicked for us. Round two coming at BPL Leadership in NYC later this year.

Thanks to all the Funk Brothers, Mother, Father, Sister, Brothers (MFSBs), and Booker t and the MG’s who made it so successful. The house bands put their Maker’s Mark on this one for sure.

Be well and Plenty, plenty, bye, bye

Be Well!