One of my law school professors explained that good lawyers are just "creative problem solvers." So, shouldn't we all be interested in crafting changes to the way time is used, both in the law, and in the education of our communities' children?
Share the Responsibility: Finger Pointing and Evasion Must End
In conclusion, the Commission offered three more recommendations for reform around time and learning to work:
- Government should focus on results, not red tape.
- Higher education needs to get involved.
- Parents, students, and teachers must lead the way.[1]
Mike Petrilli, of the Fordham Foundation, recently proposed how to help the government’s focus change under the No Child Left Behind Act:
Right now, NCLB micromanages the formula and timelines by which schools are labeled and sanctioned, yet it allows states total discretion over the academic standards and tests used to judge schools (and kids) in the first place. These should be flipped. Provide incentives for states to sign up for rigorous nationwide (not federal) standards and tests. Make the results of this testing publicly available, sliced every which way by school and group. But then allow states and districts (or private entities, such as GreatSchools.net) to devise their own school labels and ratings - and let them decide what to do with schools that need help.
Post-secondary education institutions not only must be involved—they will want to be involved when they see how much money they could save and earn. Post-secondary institutions are best equipped to help middle and high school policymakers determine what students need to do to be prepared to succeed without taking remedial coursework. In Tennessee, for example, 60 percent of first time freshman in the State’s public two or four year colleges have to take some remedial math or English. The state is paying for that instruction twice! When post-secondary institutions work with local school districts and state policymakers to blur the line between high school completion and post-secondary education—through dual credit and dual enrollment programs, for example—they will significantly increase the number of paying students they have in their courses.
If students, parents and teachers are given the opportunity and authority to lead the way, they will. Right now, students are told how long they must attend school, parents are told where their children may attend school, and teachers are told what resources are best for them and their students. Imagine if all of those situations were overturned: If students could choose or if teachers were empowered to construct classes around students’ individual needs and learning styles; if all parents could choose from a variety of themed or magnet schools to meet their children’s needs—using information gleaned from accountability measures; and if teachers could determine what resources and schedules would be most beneficial for their students (and their own professional development).
CONCLUSION
A lawyer is an expert in law pursuing a learned art in service to clients and in the spirit of public service and engaging in these pursuits as part of a common calling to promote justice and public good. -- Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct, Preamble.
A stable and democratic society is impossible without widespread acceptance of some common set of values and without a minimum degree of literacy and knowledge on the part of citizens. -- Milton Friedman
The strongest message this Commission can send to the American people is that education must become a new national obsession, as powerful as sports and entertainment, if we are to avoid a spiral of economic and social decline.
-- Prisoners of Time, p. 8.
Thankfully, because I work for the government, I need not obsess about the billable hour. But because I am a lawyer, a parent and a citizen, I am obsessed with education.
Fourteen years have passed since this report was issued. Perhaps a hundred years have passed since the way your children spend their time in school has changed.
It’s about time.
[1] Prisoners of Time, 40-41.