The resignation of John M.R. Covey from the State School Board on Monday was entirely consistent with his personal ethical code.
Covey's situation was unusual. How often do an individual's personal convictions translate into a business? That he was involved with a company selling such a seemingly abstract product as "character education" complicated an analysis of the situation.Anyone who followed the activities of the state board knew that character education, or principle-based education, was Covey's prime objective for Utah's schoolchildren. His enthusiasm for the topic dominated his input into discussions of every major board decision in the past six years, including the Shift in Focus document that has been accepted as an overall guide for education at this point in time.
It's hard to fault a person for promoting such a worthwhile end, especially in a world where a decline in moral values has contributed to the decline of families and individuals. Common principles such as honesty, respect for people and property and responsibility to duty are the oil that smooths civilized life. We certainly need more of it, not less.
But when character education becomes concrete in textbooks and other educational materials and when school districts pay for the time of consultants to train teachers in particular concepts, then character education steps across the line from abstract to business.
Whether or not Covey is directly involved in sales to Utah education units, including the State Office of Education, his salary is paid from the common pot into which profits from these sales go.
As he himself acknowledged in his resignation letter, it was likely to become more difficult to separate his statements of personal belief about ethical issues from what might be interpreted as advertising for his company's products.
Even if Covey did not apply direct pressure on state office staff to consider Covey Leadership Center materials to support character education efforts, there are subtle effects at work when a person in a leadership position takes a stand.
It's unfortunate that events of the past few weeks have intimated that Covey was promoting LDS standards in proposed state sex education supplements because he suggested the hiring of Wayne Brickey to insert a strong abstinence-based message into the adult guidelines. Although Brickey is an LDS institute teacher, he also is an individual who has made a study of ethical/moral issues.
Premarital sexual abstinence is not exclusively an LDS position. The majority of religions promote sexual abstinence before marriage and fidelty afterward. If the state board is put in the position of screening every potential contractor for religious background, its work could be unnecessarily complicated.
Although there is still plenty of room for discussion of what should go into the sex education guidelines, the LDS and/
or non-LDS issue doesn't need to be part of the debate. People of all religious persuasions - including those who disavow religion entirely - should be able to get together on how best to protect the health of young people.
Abstinence is the policy best calculated to promote physical, emotional and psychological well-being of adolescents. If nothing else, premature sexual activity tends to distract them from what's more important - learning to live productively in today's world.
That was the essence of Covey's message, business aside.
Covey took the high road in resigning his state board position, and did it in a manner consistent with his own reputation for honesty and integrity.
He leaves the board without rancor and with the respect of the great majority of those with whom he associated in that position.