A Sit Down with SP Upper School Head Mr. Mulloy
By Max Yurko
One of the features of a thriving representative democracy is an educated electorate. With election season upon us, the St. Paul’s leadership team of Mr. Mulloy, Dr. Trusty, Mrs. Pavlovski, and others have introduced “Lunch and Learn” discussions featuring relevant topics to enhance understanding of the election process and some of our most pressing issues.
Mr. Mulloy sat down for an interview this past Tuesday morning to share some of the details of this new opportunity. His inspiration for spearheading the program derives from childhood memories of discussing history and political science with his own friends. Mulloy recalls having close bonds with his buddies, while still being able to debate heated topics. His high school had similar chats, and he decided to use those as a blueprint for “Lunch and Learn.”
Unfortunately, today’s political climate has devolved into identity politics and an aversion to learning from ideas different than our own. Too often anger and emotions derail conversations.
By encouraging friendly disagreement and dialogue, Mulloy hopes to build a sense of unity. Ideally, St. Paul’s will develop leaders who will bring this message to the wider world.
These Lunch and Learns will occur every Wednesday during lunchtime in the St. Paul’s library and are open to middle and upper school students at both SP and SPSG.
Speakers will discuss important political and electoral topics as we near the 2024 presidential election. Varying among speakers, the general format will consist of 15-20 minutes of lecture followed by questions and conversation. The aim of these sessions is to have healthy political discussion and debate without animosity toward ideas that stand in opposition to our own. This goal pairs with Dr. Trusty’s school motto for the year, “More than that” which calls us to remember that each of us is greater than our face value.
Mulloy encourages students to avoid characterizing others by their political views as multiple qualities combine to form one’s personality and self. Beyond the elections, he hopes to continue these sessions with random topics chosen by SP faculty.
The current schedule for the upcoming topics and speakers is as follows:
Wednesday, October 2 – History of effective political advertisements / the role of television, media, and political ads (O’Boyle & Lewis)
Wednesday, October 9 – On Democracy, De Tocqueville (Harris)
Wednesday, October 16 – How does the Electoral College work? (Erickson)
Wednesday, October 23 – “How do you see the other side?” (Lewis)
Wednesday, October 30 – Ballot initiatives, local elections, researching candidates and issues (O’Boyle)
November TBD– Charley Mitchell, former alumni director at SP, speaking about his time at 1980 RNC
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