Elliot Washor

Elliot Washor, Ed. D. is the co-founder of Big Picture Learning and the co-founder of The Met Center in Providence. Elliot has been involved in school innovation for more than 50 years as a teacher, principal, administrator, video producer and writer. He has taught and is interested in all levels of school from kindergarten through college, in urban and rural settings, across all disciplines. His work has spanned across school design, practice, learning environments, and education innovation. He is supporting others doing similar work throughout the world. Elliot’s interests lie in the field of how schools and youth development organizations can connect with communities to understand tacit and disciplinary learning both in and outside of school. Elliot has always held that the key to education—and really to humanity—is to have students and staff—and people in general—mingle with and muddle through problems that matter to them and their communities. If this seems simple, it’s intended to. As co-founder of Big Picture Learning and The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, Elliot’s educational philosophy—one which is embedded at the core of Big Picture’s successful school design—is that practice should inform theory and that theory should inform practice, a cycle that can lead to profound change, and one that has earned Elliot wide acclaim and recognition. Elliot was selected as one of the Twelve Most Daring Educators in the World by the George Lucas