By Andrew Weaver ’21
When I entered Mr. Michael Fallik’s civics class on my first day of eighth grade, I saw a quote pasted to the classroom wall that conveyed in one sentence why I was attending Miami Country Day School. It was Thomas Jefferson’s argument that education made democratic self-government possible: “an enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” Though this went way over my head at the time, I realized in the years after that MCDS was advancing Jefferson’s vision through the education it provided for its students. The school gave me the intellectual and social skills to govern my life according to my interests and values – what is broadly defined as finding self-purpose. And more importantly, MCDS’ faculty encouraged my passion for public affairs and inspired me to pursue a career in public service, where I could use my education to make our country function better.
The most essential skill I acquired from my MCDS education was critical thinking – how to analyze a piece of evidence and use it to support an answer to a question. Though this may sound simple, no skill is more useful for answering small questions, such as those on a test, and more high-stakes problems, such as how a country can best guarantee security and prosperity for its citizens. Like all important lessons, I learned critical thinking the hard way. In her 9th grade English class, Mrs. Carolyn Dorn would challenge me to cull evidence from Greek myths, Shakespeare, and great American short stories to build arguments about the dangers of hubris, the corrupting influence of political power, and the importance of filial piety. By setting high standards for my work, Mrs. Dorn set a foundation for how to communicate my case to any audience with cogent logic and clear style.
While Mrs. Dorn was building me into a better analyst of the human experience, MCDS’ math and science teachers made sure I nurtured another invaluable skill: induction and deduction – how to build a general theory from observations and test existing theories. Though I did not know it at the time, Mr. Michael Hutsko’s lectures on calculus and Mr. Peter Konen’s lab experiments did more than teach me how to calculate the area under a curve and extract DNA from a bacteria sample. They were demonstrating how human knowledge has actually been built over centuries and how I could contribute to that project in my lifetime. This revelation was at once empowering and humbling, since it forced me to consider how I could use my college education for larger purposes beyond my own edification.
What all of my teachers impressed on me was that learning is a communal activity even if you often do it alone. All education is an iterative process, making every book you read a conversation with the author and every experiment you run a small advancement in humanity’s understanding of the natural world. That is why MCDS emphasized another skill central to success in professional life: group-based problem-solving. MCDS’ teachers recognized that the collaborative skills required to succeed in any professional organization are not innate but must be taught at an early age. Exploring open-ended questions in Socratic seminars and solving math problems at roundtables taught me how to acknowledge the merits of another person’s argument, incorporate their ideas into my understanding of a problem, and delegate responsibilities to collectively arrive at a solution. These cognitive and social skills have underpinned my work with my peers in college and colleagues in the public sector.
While teaching me how to think, MCDS also exposed me to a set of questions that have occupied most of my academic and professional work since high school. Dr. Brian Dille’s Comparative Politics course first introduced me to the field of political science, which seeks answers to such questions as why autocratic regimes are often so resilient, how countries can deter war and induce peace, and under what conditions the rule of law thrives in a democracy. In particular, Dr. Dille’s lectures on the Chinese government piqued my interest in that country’s domestic and foreign policy, which informed my decision to study Mandarin Chinese and US-China relations in college. It is unlikely I would have settled upon this career path without MCDS’ diverse course offerings and teachers who cared deeply about their students’ growth.
Yet MCDS did more than give me tools to answer questions about public affairs. Its teachers and administrators provided institutional support for me to go out and solve public policy issues in my community. When a group of students and I organized marches around Miami to pressure local governments to reduce carbon emissions, MCDS promoted our events to raise awareness and accommodated us when we left class early for meetings with elected officials. MCDS demonstrated that it wanted its students to become public leaders who find solutions to intractable policy problems. For guidance on how to build a career in public service, MCDS offered models in its teachers, who showed that there are few careers more fulfilling than those dedicated to the service of others.
Today, my academic and professional work in national security policy is grounded in the intellectual and social skills I honed in the classrooms at MCDS. As cognitive exercises, solving strategic problems about the best use of military resources to deter attacks against the United States is no different than solving math problems with classmates. Both employ critical thinking, logical reasoning, teamwork, and a zeal to answer the problem at hand. I am grateful to Miami Country Day for giving me an education that, in Jefferson’s words, enables me to contribute to the proper functioning of the republic.
