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Writer's pictureElliot Washor

Elliot Washor's TGIF 10.25.2024

“Are you with me now” A J Ryder


I started my week off meeting with Gary Kraut, a BPL board member and Giacomo Rondina, a professor of economics at UCSD about how to innovate his undergraduate courses to make them more real world and relevant. Although it was a great talk, it reminded me how difficult it is to make anything happen at a university and consequently why things don’t change k-12. I was grateful for the reminder and I’m sure we will continue the conversation. Also, I had talks all week about the International Big Picture Learning Credential with many of you. And, today, Shameka Girard and I met about the continuing evolution of Shameka and El After Dark with the next installment at the Leadership Summit in Denver. After that it is podcast time.

 

“Well, we busted out of class

Had to get away from those fools

We learned more from a three-minute record, baby

Than we ever learned in school” ?



This week I spent a couple of days at my childhood friend’s send off. I should say crib friend since we were in the crib together before we could talk. In today’s world that’s pretty unusual. The life Robbie led and the work he did puts into perspective how the work we do is carried out in all sorts of ways and that how where you come from really matters. Robbie started everything he did from the ground up – hands on - concrete to abstract, practice to theory. He graduated high school and that was about the end of his formal schooling but he had something we all knew he had and that was the Je ne c’est quoi? After graduating college in 1974, I went home to take care of my folks and Robbie hired me to help him install large walk-in commercial refrigerators. He learned this business from mentors who took him on for many reasons including his wanting to learn and his tenacity. Over the years, he built a large company and in doing so took on a partner Rob Rivera, who said, “Bob was like a father to him.” The company grew and grew until it had hundreds of employees that were like family. They all learned how to be technicians by doing the work. They got these jobs through word-of-mouth, friend to friend. These were young men and women from the five boroughs. Everyone has always been paid really well including benefits and when they needed more help for their families because shit happens, they got it. The day of the funeral between 50 and 100 trucks from their company formed a procession and passed by the funeral home. It was pretty emotional. Everyone then came into the funeral parlor and heard an incredible eulogy given by his brother Steve, Yvonne, his wife and Rob Rivera. Afterwards we went over to Robbie’s home for a sendoff. I listened to the stories of the people who worked there and realized that Robbie and I did the same things in our lives. He just did it without the formalities of school. Because of the life he led, he created a family, a community and learning environment for so many that he offered second, third and fourth chances. I’m writing this because it made me think about all the crap we have to do to make something happen and without any system this company probably did as much for families as I ever did. Coming from the same place with similar values, I know how and why Robbie operated the way he did. Over the years, we talked about our way of standing up for what the right thing to do is in the moment. The streets gave us a lot and our friends gave us a great deal more. I only wish I had the same tenacity he had to do my work without the guardrails we put up in public education.

 

On my way back home I stopped off at Barringer High School in Newark where I met with Charlie Plant, Ben Galano, a carpentry teacher and students who are Harbor Freight Fellows. We all had a great talk and it was obvious how much his students want to become carpenters but what a contrast to what Robbie created as a learning environment and how we do what we do in schools. Why do students who know they want to do all kinds of work have to wait years and then fumble around until they find through word-of-mouth places like Robbie’s? It doesn’t make much sense to me. Once again it told me that perhaps Robbie was Bigger Picture than I ever could be.

 

“We were together. I forget the rest.”?


Be well!

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