Republican Candidate Andrew Gutmann for Congress
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Reflections on Father’s Day
I hope everyone had a wonderful Father’s Day.
Yesterday was a bit bittersweet for me. It was my first Father’s Day since I became a dad 15 years ago, that I did not spend with my daughter. She is 4,000 miles and 5 time zones away at boarding school in England.
Most of you probably know my story by now. My political journey began with my daughter, after her private school in New York City, the Brearley School, completely changed its mission in the aftermath of George Floyd and BLM in 2020. After we decided not to re-enroll her for the next school year, I wrote the now famous letter ([link removed]) that went viral and helped ignite the national parent’s movement and the fight against woke education.
What you may not know is that the decision to leave Brearley was as much my daughter’s as it was mine or my wife’s. My daughter, then 12 years old, and in 6th grade, knew that Brearley was no longer a school that would offer her a good education. She knew that free expression and debate were no longer valued, and that opinions that went against the school’s progressive narrative would no longer be tolerated.
There was one incident in particular that my daughter often mentions when asked about her experiences at Brearley. In 5th grade, her social studies teacher began a discussion about removing Confederate statues in Richmond, VA because they were offensive and hateful. My daughter was the only one in the class that, despite the fact that we had no family in the U.S. during the time of the Civil War, took the position that we should not be tearing down history. Sadly, that was an opinion that was not allowed. The conversation was abruptly shut down by the teacher.
She and I are very similar. We both like to argue and debate, we have a similar sense of humor (she’s as good with a dad joke as I am), and we share a love of history, especially the period of America’s founding. Since she was young, we’ve talked about our founding fathers, and discussed the ideas and principles, the debates and compromises, and the intellectual foundations upon which our cherished nation was established.
We’ve always enjoyed visiting the monuments of America’s early history, taking trips to Washington and Williamsburg, Philadelphia and Boston, and exploring the early history of our then home, New York City. We even hatched the idea of visiting the house or library of every U.S. president – in order no less. Alas, we only made it to Mt. Vernon before, sadly, the covid pandemic intervened. Below, I share a few family pictures of our history-oriented trips.
Now I know what many of you are wondering. If we both love America and American history so much, why is my daughter in school in England? This is a question I often am asked on the campaign trail.
After my daughter left Brearley, she spent 7th grade at a very small Montessori school in New Jersey, founded and run by a politically conservative woman who loved history and developed her own history curriculum.
When we decided to move to Florida, we put her in a private school in Palm Beach County. It was the only non-woke secular K-12 school I could find in the entire country! Unfortunately, she wasn’t academically challenged, and after spring-break that year, I tried a few months of homeschooling. We all very quickly realized homeschooling wouldn’t work for high school.
The previous summer, she had participated in a two-week introduction to philosophy, politics and economics on the campus of Oxford University. The program was called the John Locke Institute. My daughter affectionately called it, “British nerd school.”
She loved the boarding school experience, loved the independence, and most importantly, she loved being with kids from around the world with similar academic interests. She came home from that program and expressed the desire to go to boarding school in England.
Not being able to find a non-woke highly academic school in the U.S. and wanting to distance her from the day-to-day nastiness of a political campaign, my wife and I said yes. We’d look into it.
The three of us took a trip to England and toured half a dozen boarding schools (my first time driving on the wrong side of the road). Most of the schools we visited, which included some of the most prestigious co-ed schools in the country, were going down the exact same, politicized woke path as Brearley had gone. We settled on the least prestigious but most traditional school we toured, in the middle of England, three hours outside of London.
She’s just about finished with her first year at her English boarding school. Aside from the food and weather, and the fact that the other students love making fun of her for being American, she’s greatly enjoyed her experience. The academics are good, the school values free speech, and she’s made friends from all around the world. It’s a unique experience that I think she will value for the rest of her life.
Of course, my wife and I miss her greatly, and holidays like Father’s Day are especially tough. But every single day of the campaign, I am reminded of her, how this all started, and why I am running for Congress.
We owe it to our children to fight to save our great country.
Sincerely,
Andrew Gutmann
Republican Candidate for Congressional District 22
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