Mistakes help us make better decisions.

At both home and school, if you make a mistake you learn that negative consequences quickly follow. Teachers create artificial consequences that are minor in nature so that students will learn from their mistakes. The theory is that if a child learns this lesson when the consequences are not severe, the child will become conditioned on how to make good choices later on into adulthood when the consequences can often be more consequential. But that paradigm only works if you first “own” your mistake and recognize that the negative consequences you are now experiencing were directly related to your poor-decision making. Otherwise, if you don’t “own” your mistakes, you don’t learn a darn thing.

I would ask for far more from the current and future school board than the mediocrity that they have exhibited in the past. Can we please make our goal the achievement of “academic excellence” for all of our kids, including our best and brightest? We are a wealthy community with great teachers, great administrators and bright kids. Our kids deserve far better than the inconsistent leadership they’ve been getting. Remember that integrity starts at the top, with the school board. It continues with the superintendent and works its way down the educational ladder from there. Please educate yourself on the candidates and vote for folks who have the integrity to “own” their mistakes and the intelligence to learn not to repeat them.