Interview with Bonnie Kallis, ASP’s Candidate for Indiana’s North Montgomery School Board (Franklin)

We all need to “touch grass.” Kids perhaps most of all.

If you’ve been alarmed by the amount of time that children are using screens, I hate to say it: It’s worse than you think. The percentage of students – even as early as kindergarten – who get screen time in the classroom is shocking. Bonnie Kallis is running for her local school board to change that… and to raise the profile of the American Solidarity Party.

Bonnie is a longtime educator and leader in the northern Midwest. Among other things, she’s also a committed daughter (she’s currently her parents’ caretaker) and an involved grandmother. In addition to that, she’s the chair of the American Solidarity Party of Indiana and a whipsmart strategic thinker.

If you don’t know her, I’m happy to introduce you to Bonnie here in this interview.

—

Jonathan Langley: Tell me about your teaching and education philosophy, and where some of those ideas came from.

Bonnie Kallis: I started teaching in a Waldorf school. These schools focus on the arts and music and educating the whole child, including nutrition. There were certain things that were okay for the kids to have at school, and other things where we'd say, "No, we're not doing junk food."

It fit with my philosophy as a parent. When I was raising my kids, I made my own baby food and did all of those kinds of hippie things. It was about what I felt was good for my kids—exposing them not just to facts, but to the world. Waldorf education is based on the idea that children can learn through a lot of different modalities and that that's really deep learning, as opposed to just learning your multiplication tables. 

My first position in a Waldorf school really formed me as a teacher. I felt that I was a steward of that classroom and a steward of those kids in place of their parents. [To me,] they weren't widgets.

You’ve probably seen my campaign materials. My campaign is really centered on the platform plank about technology in schools. We need to stop, especially with young children in elementary grades, and get kids off the computers.

They need to touch grass. They need to interact with one another. They need to learn about the environment around them.

JL: Is there a particular memory or experience that made you realize this was so important?

BK: When I was first teaching and we got computers, I was thrilled because I was in a Title I school, which was a poorer school. The tech gave the kids opportunities, and I was able to teach them so much using Apple computers.

I taught them how to make movies. When I was teaching persuasive writing, I taught them how to make ads—kind of like those "The More You Know" public service announcements. It was very nice to have that tool. 

So I'm not saying computers are terrible. But it has grown into something different. 

Since COVID, every kid has a computer. They're taking their computers home. They're doing “homework” on the computer, which is really just educational games. These educational games have all the same bells and whistles and things designed to get you scrolling, playing and playing, and never stopping.

I was on a brief hiatus during COVID, and then I went back to teaching. What I saw was huge numbers of kids diagnosed with anxiety. It had skyrocketed. I'm thinking: What on earth is going on here??

Are you familiar with [social psychologist] Jonathan Haidt?

JL: Not really.

BK: He has documented and really shown — scientifically — that it's the screens.

Kids aren't learning how to interact with one another. They're not learning how to navigate relationships. So you have bullying, you have anxiety, and they just need to breathe. They need to go outside. They need to play sports. They need to get into spats and interact as humans.

JL: What would you say to parents who push back and say that screens and computer proficiency are simply a way of life? That they're going to need these skills in high school, college, and the rest of their lives?

BK: I absolutely agree. But it's developmental.

They don't need them in kindergarten. They don't need them in first grade.

I went into a classroom once where I was substitute teaching. The teacher put an ABC song on the screen for the kids to practice during a break, and then the teacher went and sat down. The kids danced to the music on the television.

I'm just thinking: You are the human. You should be doing this with the kids.

There are things we don't need screens for. We don't need them as a placeholder for the adult in the room.

Yes, we can teach them those things in high school, when their brains have developed some and they have a little more judgment. It's something for them to grow into. We definitely don't have to do it in elementary school.

JL: How did you become involved with the American Solidarity Party? Were you aware of it before you moved to Indiana?

BK: Oh, yeah. I got involved with ASP when I was helping my daughter in Illinois, shortly after 2016.

Up until then, politically, I was definitely an independent. I think I ended up voting for the Libertarian just as a protest. I basically decided: That's it. I'm out. I'm not doing national politics. It's not worth it to me. We're not really being given a choice.

Then a friend of mine who actually lives in Indiana posted about the American Solidarity Party on social media. I looked at it and thought: Oh. They're ticking off all the things [that matter to me]. So I said, "Well, I'll give it a shot."

I filled out forms showing interest in helping with the party and Amar Patel [Chair of the Illinois Chapter of the American Solidarity Party] called me and said, "So, you want to help?"

I ended up doing what you're doing: I did the newsletter editing.

JL: Really?

BK: Yeah. 

JL: That's crazy!

BK: That was my start. Since I was a writing teacher, that was my thing. I started doing the newsletter, and then that grew into being the blog editor. Then I became the chair of Illinois because Amar was running for vice president in 2020. After that, I became a National Committee member for one term. When I came to Indiana, I got involved with the Indiana committee, and I'm now the chair.

JL: What were some of the reasons and moments that led you to say, "I should run for school board"?

BK: In Indiana, ballot access at the statewide level is virtually unattainable. The best we can do is write-in candidates for higher office. We did pretty well with the 2024 Peter Sonski [and Lauren Onak presidential] campaign—we had about 1,300 write-in votes. That's not nothing. We put a lot of work into that.

Indiana has a kind of convoluted way of deciding how many signatures you have to get for your petitions. It boils down to this: Whatever the last Secretary of State candidate received in votes, we have to get 2% of that number on our petitions.

That same 2% applies to districts, town councils, and all these little races. That's a much more doable number because now you're talking about maybe 750 signatures in a district, because of the smaller population.

Originally, I was going to run for State House. I knew for sure I wasn't going to win, but at least it would possibly put us on the ballot if I could get the signatures.

Then, lo and behold, the legislature in Indiana changed school board races from nonpartisan to partisan. All school board races this year became partisan.

For us, that was a no-brainer. I'm a teacher, and I have all of this background. It doesn't scare me at all to talk about school budgets or things like that, because of my background as a leader at my schools.

JL: What's been one of your favorite moments about the campaign so far?

BK: I'm really enjoying stretching a little bit as a human and doing things that are not in my wheelhouse. 

I met the county clerk, which was cool. She was very helpful. She started handing me things. She said, "If you fill this out, you can get an interview written up in the newspaper.” And it was! I was also asked to interview for the Capital Chronicle, a statewide paper.

Initially, I was totally petrified. I'm like: I don't know if I want to do this interview. I'm going to barf. And then I thought: Well, you asked for it, so you really have to. You're the chair. You don't have a choice.

So I did it. The guy who interviewed me was like, "Yeah, there are all these people running as American Solidarity Party candidates. What's the deal?"

I think that might be my favorite moment because that was the biggest stretch. It was an accomplishment. 

People are noticing us, and that's what we wanted.

—

You can learn more about Bonnie on her ASP candidate page and her campaign website.