Mission statements are a largely misunderstood creatures. It is very easy to come up with a pompous sentence that means little and does nothing. Here is a real mission statement of a fortune 500 company:
"Guided by relentless focus on our five imperatives, we will constantly strive to implement the critical initiatives required to achieve our vision. In doing this, we will deliver operational excellence in every corner of the Company and meet or exceed our commitments to the many constituencies we serve. All of our long-term strategies and short-term actions will be molded by a set of core values that are shared by each and every associate."
Um... Ok. Says nothing about what we want to do. Quite long, and refers to yet another five imperatives that would make it more complex and inaccessible. Do many of the hundreds of thousands of employees of the company know the mission? Does each of them know their part in realizing that mission? Unlikely.
Here's a better one:
"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
Concise, clear, immensely ambitious and inspiring. Probably well known and understood by the majority of the employees, as well as by the public. One can also take this general mission statement, and break it into goals with timetables, and very quickly - specific action.
But this blog is in the business of K12 education. We may wish to define a mission statement for a school, for a local government, for the state-wide establishment, for a specific official - teacher, principal, counselor...
Here is some very personal brainstorming, looking for a core mission statement for the whole schooling system:
"First, do no harm" - A good start, but not very inspiring. Too negative
"Leave no child behind" - Negative. Looks only at potential disaster (leaving a child behind) and not at potential. Therefore - aims for mediocrity
"Enable those who want to learn, to learn" - Nice, but not inspiring enough. Also, doesn't take full responsibility
"Produce lifelong learners" - Nice. Can be broken into action. An absolute necessity for the 21st century
"Produce happy people" - Wouldn't that be nice? Not specific, though. Keep looking
"Preserve the love of learning" - More specific than "do no harm" (1). Acknowledge the fact that human children are naturally inclined to learn. A bit stagnant, though. Also, what about those children who come to school after having had their natural curiosity already crushed by someone
"Instill the love of learning" - combines lifelong learning (4) and being happy (5)
"Preserve and develop the joy of learning" - A combination of "Preserve" and "Instill". Sees the good starting state to be preserved, as well as looking ahead - developing. Getting better. "The love of learning" implies curiosity, openness to ideas. With these attitudes, it doesn't matter that much of the student learns high math or Islam - anything can be worthy if it is taught well
"Preserve and develop the joy of learning for all" - "for all" emphasizes the inclusion of all the high-achievers, low-achievers, downright retarded: Everybody's love of learning is to be preserved and developed, for each at their own potential level. Also, "for all" includes not only the pupils - it includes the teachers. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the teachers' love of learning, and associated curiosity and humility, were preserved and developed continuously as part of the vision of the education system? Isn't it an absolute necessity? Also the officials... Also the parents... Oh, the rapture! Learning facts. Learning skills. Here we can introduce the choice between different schools, emphasizing different fields of knowledge and different skills
"Preserve and develop the joy of learning and teaching, for all" - Children, and many adults, are at least as happy to teach as they are to learn. Possibly the best ways to deepen one's understanding of any issue, is to teach it to another. Introducing the issue of teaching emphasizes the fact that teachers' well-being is part of the core mission. With such a system-wide attitude, those adults who like to learn and teach will be motivated to come into the schooling system. It also emphasizes the fact that the system can have children serve as tutors. This, in turn, introduces service to society, which seems like a good idea. Kind of a complex sentence, though
"Preserve and develop the joys of learning and teaching" - This is pretty good. Would take some more word-smithing, but the basics for a core mission statement are here
There are many more desirable traits: Creativity, productivity, contribution to society, self-discipline, critical thinking, distinction between what one knows and what one doesn't know, noting the source of each claimed fact or knowledge, noticing when a task is completed and when it is still "open". But are these universally correct values? Is everyone capable of exhibiting them? Should everybody? Some of them may be subjective ideological values, religious values... Should they part of the core mission? Maybe some of them can be part of the local mission statement of a school or a region, rather than part of the core mission statement. Maybe they can be the mission statement of a parallel system - not of schooling, but of socialization. Much room for discussion.
We can create a distributed schooling system, where each region and school can have their own mission in addition, and not instead of the core mission. In that case, the regulatory body will have to make sure that the core mission is adhered to. How do we measure "the joy of learning"? It will take some thought, but I believe it is possible to check people's attitude towards learning in general.
Peter Drucker emphasized the need for a mission statement to be operative, to be directly followed by action. Everybody in the organization should be able to look at their work and say: “This is my contribution to the mission." Stating the mission should be followed immediately with stating what it means in terms of objectives, strategies and action to be taken by each stakeholder.
To preserve and develop the joys of learning and teaching, what can I as a class teacher do? What can I as a principal do? What can I as the minister of education do? What can I as a parent do? What can I as a fourth-grade pupil do?
Very intersting. I would like to see the word educating and not only teaching in the mission statement. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteWords like "education" ware intentionally left out, since they are so vague, and don't lead to action. Also, if education has to do with values, there won't be any consensus and it won't be useful as a universal mission. But the mission dealing only with learning and teaching is really a bit "flat". There should be something about socialization, since it occurs naturally in the context of any group of people, and certainly in a group of children, and school is a good opportunity to direct the process of socialization. Social interaction is also as natural as learning and teaching, and is potentially as enjoyable. So, how about "To develop the joys of learning, teaching and social participation?"
ReplyDeleteThis opens the field for every school to emphasize the social skills valuable to the particular community.
It would be good to emphasize the fact that the mission is a call to action, and not just an expression of good intention. Maybe add "every day" at the beginning or at the end.
ReplyDeleteI see the keyword "joy" mentioned often. As someone whose profound love for books was crushed by the educational system, I couldn't identify more. However, some parts of studying are not fun, nor do I feel they should be.
ReplyDelete"Self-development" is a keyword I could not stress enough. "character building" and "people skills" are included in it. Looking back at my "grades factory" education, there was little if any of it.
Compare that to my recent "back to school" experience. The frequent speeches, role play etc. each student in his turn was forced to perform in front of the class were not "fun", there was little "joy" involved, on the contrary - often it was an increadibly embrassing, unpleasant experience, but it _worked_.
So well, in fact, that I'd gone from visibly shaking in front of the class in my first speech, to being the representative of graduates in a speech of gratitude & farewell to the school, in front of the entire school. This is something only the school is in a position to teach. It would be a shame if we missed out on that part.
Venturing a guess about you: I am guessing that in spite of the difficult experiences you went through in the classes you describe, you still take great joy in learning and teaching. Mission accomplished. The process doesn’t have to be all fun and games, but the total effect should be one that promotes further learning.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know how to put “character building” and its many bylaws into a workable mission statement. Also different people mean very different things by it. Hundreds of millions of people mean something like “know your place.” Hundreds of millions of others mean something like “know how to improve your place.” Many others don’t want school to intervene in character issues at all.
Maybe “character building” should be added to the mission statement without details. There is room for public debate. In a perfect world.