Why is Freedom Hard?

In the state of Iowa we have the option or choice to drop the Carnegie Unit and embrace competency based education (CBE).  No more worrying about credits to graduate...we write our competencies (easier said than done), and base college and career readiness on mastery of those competencies.  This would open up avenues for PBL and student voice.  So why are more schools not making this shift?  

Freedom is hard.  Bottom line, we don't know what freedom feels like in education.  With so many mandates and parameters to follow in the past (and still some today), it's hard to open up because the creativity has been beaten out of us...hmm sounds familiar to our students.  We first need to embrace CBE.  Then we need to understand the freedom we have and be willing to take a risk.

We still need standards, we still need indicators, but imagine the possibilities of allowing kids to travel from class to class or subject to subject without the stress of "I need this class to graduate."  Instead we base their graduation on competency not completion.  We know completion doesn't work, because the spectrum of completion is so wide.  I want to see schools embrace and utilize the freedom they have, because it may not seem like much all the time, but when you are given an inch sometimes you can go a mile.