(Two reasons for school reform failure)

A gutsy piece. Common sense tells us that education is a two-way street. Educate is an active verb. It is something one does. It does not happen passively. The teacher should work hard AND THE STUDENT SHOULD WORK HARD.

Yet, defying common sense, education reform efforts have focused only on the first person–not the second! If students don’t learn, the teachers must be doing something wrong! Hello… does that make sense to anyone? NOT ME. Such reforms have not worked and, they will not. So says this gutsy piece by Robert J. Samuelson in the Washington Post.

He cites the (usually uncited and unspoken) reason–students are not motivated to work hard. Thank you, Mr. Samuelson, for telling a truth. In my experience, most teachers are good enough. BUT, they cannot educate students alone. Education is an ACTIVE verb. Teachers need active participation by students (and I would say, parents). Our reforms have been looking in the wrong place.

About Miriam

Miriam Kurtzig Freedman, JD, MA—an expert in public education, focused on special education law— is a lawyer, author, speaker, consultant, and reformer. For more than 35 years, Miriam worked with educators, parents, policy makers, and citizens to translate complex legalese into plain English and focus on good practices for children. Now, she focuses her passion on reforming special education, with her new book, Special Education 2.0—Breaking Taboos to Build a NEW Education Law. Presentations include those at the AASA Conference, Orange County (CA), Boston College (MA), CADRE (OR), and the Fordham Institute (DC). Her writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Education Week, Education Next, Hoover Digest, The University of Chicago Law Review on line, DianeRavitch.net, and The Atlantic Monthly on line.

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