Required silence serves no purpose

The General Assembly has had worse ideas -- this is, after all, Illinois. But seldom has it invited so much second-guessing and controversy over a move of so little demonstrable benefit to anyone.

Lawmakers in both chambers last week overrode Gov. Rod Blagojevich's wise veto of a measure requiring public schools to begin each day with a moment of silence.

The new law does not merely permit schools to observe silence -- it requires them to do so. The distinction is important, because the state already had in place a perfectly good law spelling out that any student or teacher "may observe" a moment of silence. The new law says schools "shall observe."

Many administrators and teachers believe the new law is a useless mandate and, further, that it represents a slap in the face from a legislature that either can't or won't give public schools more money or at least devise a more equitable funding mechanism.

By contrast, some folks who believe that the courts have "driven God out of the schools" embrace the mandate as a way to bring prayer into public schools.

But the legislation carefully avoids the word "prayer," and some advocates of the law -- or teachers simply trying to make the best of it -- suggest that practically anyone can benefit from taking a few moments to silently reflect and collect themselves for the day ahead.

That's probably true. But again, nothing in previous law prevented anyone from doing that. Mandating the silence doesn't create an opportunity for anybody that didn't already exist.

What the mandate does create is a host of issues that will waste administrators' and teachers' time. How long, exactly, is a moment? Ten seconds? Twenty? When should the "moment" be scheduled? How do teachers explain the purpose? What do teachers do, if anything, about a student who whispers, talks, sings, drums or raps his way through the moment?

Presumably, some schools will do nothing about non-compliance, because the law contains no provision for enforcement. But issues will arise, nonetheless, because some folks on both sides of the debate will insist on pushing it.

Atheist and inveterate complainer Rob Sherman is itching to sue. One Waukegan teacher has announced that he won't observe it, a high-profile announcement that puts administrators in a bind. Because some students in this teacher's classes will value the moment of silence, we're heading for conflict and problems that simply didn't have to occur at all.

All of which leads to one more unflattering conclusion: That a legislature sure to be remembered for its inability to solve problems will also be remembered for its inability to leave well enough alone.