{"id":738,"date":"2017-10-24T14:35:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T14:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/?p=738"},"modified":"2018-07-24T14:35:29","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T14:35:29","slug":"headmaster-conard-addresses-national-debate-on-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/2017\/10\/24\/headmaster-conard-addresses-national-debate-on-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Headmaster Conard Addresses National Debate on Free Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Miro Bergam (V)<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Mr. Conard closed off last week\u2019s morning meeting with a speech addressing our country\u2019s current national debates over the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville and over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Mr. Conard began his speech by reciting passages from the Pingry Honor Code, the Bill of Rights, and the Preamble of the Declaration of Independence, stating that these are three texts that, as American citizens and Pingry students, are intended to guide us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Conard then explained how today\u2019s highly politicized society makes the discussion of such debates extremely difficult. As an educator, he said, \u201cI am certainly entitled to my own political views; [however] I feel an obligation not to share them with you.\u201d In the high-tension politics of today, this position becomes even more challenging, as any statement or lack of statement \u201cis perceived as political or unpatriotic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless, he finds the discussion of these political debates to be important. In order to conduct them productively at Pingry, he believes \u201cwe need to work hard to separate them from partisan politics.\u201d He suggested that to achieve this we should listen to both sides, regardless of how ugly we may find the other side\u2019s opinion. Mr. Conard said that although the white supremacists\u2019 beliefs are \u201cabhorrent to [him], and are both unacceptable and un-American,\u201d he still believes \u201cthat they have a right to voice their opinions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This brought Mr. Conard to the topic of taking a knee during the national anthem. He maintained his stance on the freedom of expression and speech, saying, \u201cIf the flag is a symbol of our freedom, and is emblematic of the beliefs and rights articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, then one of those rights is the freedom to kneel in front of the flag.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Conard ended his speech by encouraging students to engage in these conversations productively and listening to each other through respectful dialogue. He invited students to continue this conversation in a series of Open Forums, spaces open to the whole school to have such discussions.<\/span><\/p>\n

An Open Forum was held in the O\u2019Connor Board Room later that day. Attendees split into groups to discuss different topics, including gun control and the recent shooting in Los Vegas, the UN decision to vote against banning the death penalty on the basis of sexual orientation, and kneeling during the national anthem at Pingry sporting events. Vicky Chen (V), who attended the Open Forum, said, \u201cI talked about kneeling during the national anthem at Pingry sports games, and it was nice to have a conversation as sensitive as that with such a large group of teachers and peers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding Mr. Conard\u2019s speech and the Open Forum, Nabeel Jan (V) said, \u201cI think they were a great way to start a dialogue on free speech. I think by having conversations we can only go forward together and not into a state of polar arguments, something that we should apply to other issues in our currently divisive political climate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Miro Bergam (V) Mr. Conard closed off last week\u2019s morning meeting with a speech addressing our country\u2019s current national debates over the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville and over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Mr. Conard began his speech by reciting passages from the Pingry Honor Code, the Bill of Rights, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-news","tag-school-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions\/739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}