| Author | Message | ||
     ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 2025 Registered: 5-2001  |
that's relevant. | ||
| bobk Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 4848 Registered: 5-2001 |
Over the last few years I have read about several teenagers elected to various BOEs. I don't think age is a criterium to be honest. Personally I am probably not going to vote for him primarily because of his views on leveling, but he is legal to run, so why not? | ||
| viva Citizen Username: Viva Post Number: 376 Registered: 5-2001 |
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| Diversity Man Citizen Username: Deadwhitemale Post Number: 671 Registered: 5-2001 |
Any of you split rails today? This kid is the one who harangued the board several months ago about how the high school is a racist institution. Perhaps the recording can be played to a debate audience, if he denies it. DWM | ||
| Montagnard Citizen Username: Montagnard Post Number: 456 Registered: 6-2003 |
In our current situation, we need someone who can (a) give direction to the District Administration from a position of intellectual and moral authority, (b) distinguish between parents repeating edubabble and those who actually know something about educating children, and (c) clearly grasp the effect of school issues on property values. IMHO, this requires a reasonably well-educated home-owning parent with a solid peer group of fellow parents to draw on for informal advice. Personally, I would also rule out any candidate willing to sacrifice their own children for any kind of quasi-altruistic goal, because they'd happily sacrifice my children and your children as well. We've had enough of this already from the de-levelling crowd. | ||
| Cynicalgirl Citizen Username: Cynicalgirl Post Number: 449 Registered: 9-2003  |
Montagnard for BOE! I agree with much of what he or she has to say... | ||
| John Davenport Citizen Username: Jjd Post Number: 138 Registered: 2-2003 |
Lincoln studied law, and knew a good bit of Emerson (through his law partner, who was out of the St. Louis Hegelian circles). Anyway, I give Mr. Gifford credit for running, and there might even be something to be said for having an actual high school student, elected by the student government, sit as a non-voting member on the Board. But no, I do not think that any student going to college full-time could possibly devote enough time both to studying and the BOE -- I say that as a college prof who thinks that our college students work FAR too much while trying to go to college (partly because GWB and likeminded nuts have wasted gazillions on tax cuts with which I could have tripled the Pell Grant). But anyway, no voting member of the BOE should be without a college degree. This is education we are trying to manage here, after all. (I know, I'm an academic elitist, but remember, John Stuart Mill thought people with doctorates should get two votes... not a bad idea now that I think about it!). | ||
| parkbench87 Citizen Username: Parkbench87 Post Number: 369 Registered: 7-2001 |
While I can't imagine voting for an 18 year old for the BOE or any political position this stuff about requiring a candidate for the BOE to have a College Degree is nonsense. If there is no College Degree requirement for President of the USA I think we can live without one for Maplewood BOE. Let the voters decide. I doublt an 18 year old will win. | ||
| kathy Citizen Username: Kathy Post Number: 775 Registered: 5-2001 |
It may be that Mr. Gifford is running as a way of bringing certain issues into the debates and ensuring that they are addressed. I guess that that would make him the Al Sharpton of the BOE election.  | ||
| John Davenport Citizen Username: Jjd Post Number: 144 Registered: 2-2003 |
Exactly, like that guy who sat in between John McCain and George Bush during the last Republican presidential primaries and everyone wondered who he was, and how he managed to get so much prime time for his bizarre views. | ||
| lumpynose Citizen Username: Lumpyhead Post Number: 749 Registered: 3-2002  |
So Gifford just wants a platform to have his views heard? What are his views? That we need to delevel the high school because leveling is inherently racist? Why can't he just give a speech at the Ethical Cultural Society instead? Oh I forgot, cause he's only 18 without any advanced degrees. | ||
| kathy Citizen Username: Kathy Post Number: 779 Registered: 5-2001 |
I didn't say that that was the only reason that he was running. Just running for the BOE, let alone serving, is a major undertaking and one has to be pretty committed to take it on. I don't see someone running if he didn't expect to be able to serve if elected. I look forward to hearing what Mr. Gifford has to say--and all the other candidates as well. | ||
| lumpynose Citizen Username: Lumpyhead Post Number: 753 Registered: 3-2002 |
I'll bet you can't wait to hear from Rowland Bennett too. | ||
| harpo Citizen Username: Harpo Post Number: 1316 Registered: 6-2001 |
I always look forward to everybody setting forward their views for themselves. I'm really surprised anybody would prejudge an 18-year-old candidate for BOE or presume he couldn't handle it along with his college studies. Lots of college students keep up with full loads and do lots of extracurricular stuff. And there's nothing wrong with running in an election to make sure certain issues are aired. Maybe those issues are important. Maybe he'll prove to be better informed than all the other candidates. Maybe he'll have more energy and fresh ideas. Ya never know. Stranger things have happened. Alexander the Great had put down a rebellion in one of his father's colonies when he was 16 and renamed it Alexandroupolis. (And he still kept up with his studies in drama, poetry and music.) I sometimes think people on MOL yearn too much for a very bland and anemic form of technocratic democracy! | ||
| viva Citizen Username: Viva Post Number: 386 Registered: 5-2001 |
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| lumpynose Citizen Username: Lumpyhead Post Number: 755 Registered: 3-2002 |
A recent graduate would have a inside perspective on what works. What bothers me is that if DWM is correct, this young man's views are a bit radical. Let's go to the video tape... | ||
| LibraryLady (ncjanow) Citizen Username: Librarylady Post Number: 1267 Registered: 5-2001  |
If he wins, does he get to hand himself his diploma at graduation? Nancy Chiller Janow On a coffee break..or something like it. | ||
| kathy Citizen Username: Kathy Post Number: 784 Registered: 5-2001 |
Lumpynose, You're right, I also can't wait to hear what Rowland Bennett has to say. And all the other candidates, as I said. I believe in listening to all the candidates and making an informed choice based on what I hear. You, on the other hand, seem to think that you already know enough that you're ready to decide not only your own choices but mine as well. How is it that you know more about what I think than I do? One thing that I will say is that I routinely choose people who seem ready to listen and ready to work over people who think that they already know all the answers. P.S. I know Mr. Bennett and like him very much. But that doesn't decide an election for me. | ||
| lumpynose Citizen Username: Lumpyhead Post Number: 757 Registered: 3-2002 |
I know is I am against de-leveling in the HS. If a candidate is for that, like Gifford, I cannot vote for him regardless of him still being in high school. | ||
| kathy Citizen Username: Kathy Post Number: 786 Registered: 5-2001 |
As I posted elsewhere, at the Cougar Forum last Friday quite a few CHS students, mostly from upper levels, independently said that they thought that the high school would be improved by increasing the interaction between students in different levels. This would not necessarily amount to "deleveling", and you should not assume that someone who clearly does not agree with Mr. Gifford has characterized his position accurately. But deleveling does seem to be much more of a bogeyman for parents than it does for students. |
