Priorities and Principles
I believe in giving thoughtful answers to important questions, so I hope you’ll stick with me here.
When I came to the question of how to express my priorities and principles to you, it occurred to me that I think of them in three tiers, and I can best describe them to you within that structure. So here are three big questions I ask myself, with my thoughts on each:
1. Where do I plan to focus my efforts?
On the overall health of the system. Given what I have learned about the leanness of Carroll County Public Schools, and how little wiggle room it has to absorb the fiscal challenges that come its way – whether from a State law like the Blueprint for Maryland’s Education or the economic reality of rising inflation – I see no way around the need to work to secure sufficient resources for the system. The residents of Carroll County should have the public school system it expects – and its residents do not expect high class sizes due to teacher cuts, or cuts to programs that, for generations, have been viewed as essential to the school experience.
On the proper role of technology in the classroom. Because students needed to use laptops for distance learning during the pandemic, and because our society becomes ever more dependent on technology over time, today’s classroom has come to rely heavily on laptops and other technology. There are advantages to this development – frequent assessments allow educators to track students’ progress and target attention to students who are not grasping the content they’ve been taught. But there are also disadvantages – distractions, difficulties in submitting assignments, barriers to parents being able to help their children learn, and a disconnect from some of the basic skills (like note-taking and writing by hand) that help children absorb what they’ve been taught. I think it’s time for the school system to reevaluate the proper role of technology in the classroom, with an aim to teach in ways that will help students focus on and absorb the content they are being taught, while not losing sight of the importance of ensuring that students are not left behind. I believe this topic deserves attention on its own, not as an attempt at a cost-savings measure. A less technology-dependent classroom is not necessarily a less expensive one, given the cost of purchasing textbooks, workbooks, and paper, and reworking curricula to incorporate them.
2. What are my opinions on other relevant (or more specific) matters?
To get into some specific questions that people ask of those running for boards of education, I’ll list the following. But please absorb that these answers are in my second tier for a reason: The first several are not where I expect to be focusing my time and energy. They may, of course, come up in the course of the Board of Education’s regular business, and so it’s fair to ask for my opinion. The rest are simply more specific versions of my broader priority of securing the overall health of the school system.
On choice in health curriculum. I believe that parents have the primary role in the moral formation of their children, and it is especially important that the State respect that primacy when it comes to sensitive subjects like sexuality and sexual morality. I am grateful that Carroll County offers an alternative health curriculum for families who want to take advantage of it, so that parents have options on how they wish for their children to be instructed (or not instructed) on such subjects.
On book bans. While I may find some of the content in some of the books on library shelves distasteful, I believe the focus on this issue has served primarily to divide our community and distract from the real challenges facing our school system and its students. I think it’s time to move on to issues that impact all of the County’s students, not just the small number of those checking out a small number of objectionable books.
On accommodations for transgender students. While, as a fundamentally conservative person of faith, I hold my own personal opinions on the beauty and value of our natural-born genders, I also see the high importance of valuing the person in front of me, regardless of how they see themself. I will never demean a person for their gender identity. I believe that every person deserves respect. As far as I understand, Maryland law is settled when it comes to matters related to accommodations for transgender students. Where there remains discretion for boards of education, I would decide my position based on the safety of and fairness to all involved.
On truth in history and civics education. I am committed to the truth, even when the truth is uncomfortable. I would oppose any effort to obscure the truth of the American experience when it comes to difficult subjects such as slavery, the Jim Crow era, etc. It is important that our students are given the full picture of our nation’s history. We do them – and our country – no favor when we prioritize comfort over truth.
On Outdoor School. Given the pervasiveness of screens and social media in our children’s lives, I believe that Outdoor School is more important today than it ever was in the seventies, eighties, or nineties. My own children spend much time outside and, through their participation in Scouting, have had many opportunities to gain perspective, resilience, problem-solving skills, and wonder from nature. Most children today, however, do not seem to get these opportunities. Most children today seem to live much of their life online, on screens, in niche communities they curate for themselves. When my older children attended Outdoor School, they told us that many of their classmates began the week grumpy and reluctant – unhappy to be removed from the comforts (and screens) of home. But by the end of the week, their perspective had shifted. They had grown and matured and taken their new experience to heart. They’d learned to love it. It feels vital to me that we give our children the opportunity to experience this perspective shift. It feels vital to me that we give them this reminder of what it is to live in this real, tangible, natural world.
On elementary music programs. American schools have provided elementary-aged students the opportunity to participate in band, chorus, and orchestra instruction for generations. Music programs don’t just teach new skills; they open new worlds to the students who participate in them – and indeed in many ways, they help them to become better students overall. I would oppose any effort to eliminate such programs.
On athletics and extracurriculars. American schools have also provided opportunities to participate in athletics and extracurriculars for generations. Such opportunities have become so intertwined with the educational experience that many of us can’t fathom a school without them. Our students would be disadvantaged on college applications without them, and possibly even on applications for military service or out-of-high-school employment. Not only do such programs help to instill commitment, teamwork, confidence, and strategic thinking in our students – they also help to keep our kids healthy and connected to their community. I would oppose any effort to eliminate such programs.
On teachers, special education, career readiness, and other important components of our school system. I am relatively new to education advocacy, and my experience with CCPS does not extend to all of the issues that school families, employees, and community members justifiably find important. I have been working hard and picking up on a lot, but I have so much more to learn. As I undertake this campaign, I am determined to dig in – to talk to teachers, parents, employers, etc. – to understand their experiences with the system, and to hear their suggestions for its improvement. If you would like to weigh in with your own experiences, concerns, and ideas, please click here.
3. What are the values and principles that underly my positions?
I am a fundamentally conservative person, but I do not consider myself bound by partisanship. I care more about acting in accordance with my deeply-held moral convictions than falling in line with any group.
I believe our society has become too polarized, that we have allowed our disagreements to divide us, and that in doing so, we have harmed our country, our communities, our families, and our children.
I refuse to further that harm. I resolve to do what I can to repair, to heal, to bring people together, and to improve my community. I am grateful to live in an area where I get to know and love people who hold a wide range of ideological viewpoints. I think it is good to remember that we can love the people we disagree with, and we can disagree with the people we love.
Here are some of my most dearly-held principles:
People are important. As a devoted Catholic, I believe that all people are created in the image and likeness of God, and so I take very seriously my call to show all people respect, and to remember the importance of every individual before me. I will not demean. I will not dehumanize. I value all life regardless of its age, condition, or status. I value all those I interact with, whether I vigorously agree with them or vehemently disagree.
Civil, constructive discourse is vital to a healthy society. We have a choice in what we want our society to be. We each have the power to build it up or tear it down. I believe that when we focus our efforts on dividing ourselves from those we disagree with, we contribute to our decline. I believe that if we want to make our communities and our society healthier and stronger, then we need to engage – civilly, in good will – with those with whom we disagree.
Our local communities are where we are most able to make a positive difference. It used to be said that “all politics is local,” meaning that at the end of the day, people cared most about whether their roads were paved, their neighborhoods were safe, and their schools were good. In recent years, especially with the advent of social media, the reverse has become true. Now, “all politics is national,” meaning that partisan labels and issues of national prominence have come to dominate even small-time, local politics. In that reversal, I think we’ve lost something. We’ve lost connections to our neighbors. We’ve lost a sense of responsibility to the communities we live in. We’ve lost opportunities to make real, meaningful, positive differences in the places where we are best equipped to do so.
The values that we hold dear in our personal lives should also be held dear in our public lives. In my personal, private life – in my family and among my friends and neighbors – I value truth, integrity, responsibility, respect, prudence, generosity, curiosity, kindness, fairness, and hard work. I’ll bet most of us do. But many of us have come to give public figures, especially political figures, a pass on these values. Many of us have forgotten to bring these values with us in our speech and activity on matters of public importance. I believe that there should be no difference between our private and public morality – that I should work just as hard to be an upright, positive person in public life as I have always tried to be in private.
To close, I make the following promises as I enter this race:
I promise to be truthful. I promise to act with integrity.
I promise to be respectful. I promise to be civil. I promise to never use demeaning language. I promise to value the person in front of me – whether in person or online, whether I am deciding on a matter impacting them or weighing in on something related to them.
I promise to listen. I promise to be curious. I promise to seek out opinions from a wide range of people who are impacted by or who care about Carroll County Public Schools. I promise to dig into the details, to try to understand how our school system works. I promise to take all sides’ concerns into account.
I promise to work hard. I promise to devote myself to matters of substance – to matters that will have a real impact on the children of Carroll County.
I promise to be prudent. I promise to honor the trust and the hard work of Carroll County’s voters and taxpayers.
I promise to build up this community, to do what I can to help it be healthy and whole. I promise to never aim to divide it.
In entering this race, my primary goal is not to win a seat on the Carroll County Board of Education. My primary goal is to run this race in a way that my family and I can be proud of, and to do what I can to help improve my community, especially for the sake of its children.
Thank you for reading this far. If you support what I stand for, I’d be honored to have your help in this campaign. You can donate below, and you can sign up to volunteer and spread the word here.
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