We began yesterday with a great talk from AASA President Kristi Wilson as she talked about the process of building John S. McCain III Elementary School in her district. She spoke about the need to reject false choices. In her district's design planning some thought that linking coding and humanities was impossible – as if those ideas are opposed to each other.

Fast forward to our excellent closing keynote from Linda Darling-Hammond and she spoke about not having to select between social-emotional learning or academic success. As we welcome back students to in-person learning it is the social-emotional learning that will help lead to the academic success. As an outsider to your system, what a wonderful and reassuring message to get from someone so involved in the federal work around education.