Me Judge and Me Jury
October 1, 2008 — woscholar
Photo Credit: Lee Bennett
I received a jury summons in the mail yesterday. The US District Court about 40 miles away has some type of patent case coming up. I’m not a specialist in patent law, not by any stretch. Yet, they are going to pay me about $40 a day plus mileage to sit on a jury to act like a judge for who knows how many days. It kind of makes you appreciate the vast skills and knowledge a judge has to have to cover many types of cases, not to mention the prosecutors and defendants. You know, the people who come through the court room. But if I don’t show up, I will get arrested and fined. I get out of my regular work because the law says jury duty is important, so I will be in attendance on October 17th at 8:30 AM in a coat and tie.
That got me to thinking. What if we did the same to get substitutes in the classrooms? What if there was a random draw to decide who would be available for a certain week? The local governing body (school board) would send out notices and everyone shows up. Then the principal and other teachers would chose who gets the $40 for the day acting like a teacher for who knows how many days.
Better yet, what if it applied to parent conferences (minus the randomness and $40 a day plus mileage)? What if all of a sudden the government decided it was important for parents to attend these meetings and told the companies that they could not dock the employees for attending them during work hours? And if the parent did not show up for the conference …..
Just thinking out loud here. You can move along now.
October 1, 2008 at 7:31 am
Those are very thought provoking ideas you expressed in this post! The state of education would not be in as bad as shape as it is in some areas if state/federal government entities put a monetary value on parental involvement ideas. I love the idea of a ‘jury pool’ of candidates that had to by law sub in schools. At one time in Texas, a proposal from the state legislation was up for vote that would compel all district superintendents, asst. supers, administrators, principals, etc. to teach a class for an entire week. This was never approved but it sure spurred interesting conversations about the ‘what ifs’ of the law. I was hoping this would pass and help those that have moved on up the ranks and lost sight of what it is like to be in the classroom or have been out the classroom for a large numbers of years. Great reality check.
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October 1, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I am LOVING this train of thought! I would love to see Joe Public in a classroom for a week (or better yet by Superintendent and the WHOLE SCHOOL BOARD! (Kudos to Kim above). I think it’s a sound idea. Huzzah!
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