My mind has always had a mind of its own, a way of holding onto to a tidbit for years and then somehow connecting it another morsel to form the nugget of an idea. Much like the platforms designed to emulate the results of human intelligence, I’ve never really understood how my own mind and intelligence work, but I’ve learned how to use it, and it’s served me well over these many decades.
Most recently, the tidbit and morsel come from Rhode Island, the tidbit from a Zoom call in 2020 and the morsel, a news story about 10 days ago.
The Tidbit
In late March 2020, just a few months into independent consulting (i.e., semi-retirement) and about two weeks after COVID-19 closed schools for the indefinite future, I found myself included on a Zoom call to take stock of the situation and perhaps come up with some advice for school leaders and policymakers. Among the eclectic group assembled that morning was Ken Wagner, a former Commissioner of Education in Rhode Island.
With the chalk dust barely settled and/or the dry erase markers still wet, Ken, if I can call him Ken, made the bold proclamation that schools would never be the same. Parents, having looked behind the curtain, would never accept the status quo, would never allow things to return to the way they were. I’m assuming that there wasn’t much push back to the claim, because there hardly ever is, but anyway we moved on to more immediate issues like whether teachers should try to teach new content remotely. I don’t recall thinking much about the prediction of a parent-led reform revolution since then.
The Morsel
Earlier this month, I awoke to a new story about the school year for Pawtucket, Rhode Island elementary schools being extended three days because the districts had been letting kids out of school five minutes early each day. Yes, that’s how it was reported in the headline. Details in the story explained that by regulation the minimum amount of instructional time per day was 5 hours, 30 minutes and the Pawtucket Schools (for years, apparently) were scheduling only 5 hours, 25 minutes. The state, district, and teachers’ union (everything in RI includes the union) agreed on the solution that extend the school year by 3 days and extended each school day following the Memorial Day holiday by 10 minutes.
Parents were upset at the “last-minute” notice that the school year would be about a week longer. Parents and others were not happy about the extra costs to taxpayers. In the week or so that followed, however, I haven’t found any follow-up reports of a widespread revolt.
The Nugget
Pawtucket, Rhode Island may be “universally recognized as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution,” but I don’t see any revolution in public education emerging there or elsewhere any time soon.
If in the spring of 2026 we are still devoting so many resources to a situation involving 5 minutes of “instructional time” per day and parents are willing to accept adding a week to the school year, we are so deeply entrenched in the status quo that reimagining, reforming, and restructuring American public education any time soon seems about as realistic as 100% proficiency or large-scale standardized tests providing actionable information to inform instruction.
Disclaimers and Duplicity
Let me say upfront that I’ve never been a fan of regulations related to instructional time. If the current school year snafu in Pawtucket is a microcosm of the state of public education, in general, our idolatry of instructional time is a metonym of our tendency to grasp tightly and never let go of the things that can be most easily measured (i.e., time, money) or counted (absences, suspensions, numbers of students) in lieu of focusing on what really matters. Yes, it may be true that time, money, etc. are indicators of or proxies for those things that really matter, but we all know how this works. Measure time and we will regulate time, not how well that time is used. Count suspensions and we will reduce (or increase) suspensions without addressing any underlying issues involving administrator, teachers, students, or the interactions among them. Counts and compliance uber alles.
And I am still a fan of summer vacation. Until you can show me how you are going to do with those extra 5, 15, or 40 days productively, I’ll stick with 180 and the devil I know. Again, time is important, but I’m pretty sure that lack of time in school is not the biggest barrier to student achievement in the United States, and adding more of the same is not the solution.
As for duplicity, well if you believe the news stories, it starts in this case with the letter to parents from the district attributed the extended school year simply to weather-related issues; with the time issue being uncovered by an out-of-state reporter. And then there is the handwringing and teeth gnashing about the poor students being robbed of valuable instruction all these years. Beyond this single issue, RI has long been ground zero in the disconnect between parents’ belief in grades v. test scores and union issues that Mike Petrilli writes about this week. Self-interest, self-preservation, and self-fulfilling prophecies.
We have to be willing to speak the truth to ourselves and to others.
A Tangled Web, A Can of Worms, A Barrel of Monkeys
I tried to fit a hornet’s into that header, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
Public education is the classic riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.
Sure, my mind can form an image of those five minutes per day being transformed into 15 hours of solid instruction and practice per year (a total of 75 hours in grades 1 through 5), ultimately leading to the acquisition or reinforcement of a skill or competency; but my mind also pictures me fitting into my college band jacket. With due respect to Disney, in these cases, dreaming it does mean you can do it.
Five minutes per day.
If I were in charge, I would probably add in 2-3 minutes of silence at the beginning and end of the school day. We used to call it prayer, but that wasn’t kosher, so we switched to silent reflection for a while. That silence, too, gave way to noisier, more active pursuits, but now mindfulness is on the upswing. As my Apple Watch reminds me each morning, it’s a good idea to start (and end) the day with some quiet reflection. Does it count as instructional time? It’s not lunch or recess. Count it.
Breathe. Consider your mood or emotion. Think about…
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Embrace the Absurd 