What’s Your Mission Statement?
I have been thinking about a comment Steven Squyers made during the Friday night panel at EduCon 2.1. “What’s your missions statement.” He was discussing how the Mars Rover Project has a mission statement short, to the point and takes up less then half a sheet of paper. He said when decisions are made we refer to the mission statement, if it supports the mission then go for it, if it does not then throw it out. I have worked at a number of school districts that all had mission statements. These statements hang on lobby walls, are printed in student hand books, adorned web pages and appear at school committee meetings.
They go something like this; (a mash-up of the last 4 schools I have worked in)
“The mission of Any School, in partnership with parents and community, is to educate all students to high standards of academic excellence, artistic expression, cultural awareness and to prepare a diverse student body to be creative, responsible, productive citizens in a dynamic changing society.”
Lofty goals. But honestly I do not see it happening. I participate in a large network of educators and work with some of the best who try to meet this vision everyday. But systematically I do not think we are working to meet these goals. We discuss how to improve state test scores. We eliminate art, music and enrichment classes due to budget cuts. We limit access to the global community and prevent students from connecting and creating with today’s interactive tools. We stress the 4 core subjects to help students meet the testing standards but little more. We focus on data driven decision making. How does this data support artistic expression, social and cultural awareness? Listen to the language found in state and federal DOE reports and spoken at many school meetings. What is the real mission being expressed? My guess “to help all students meet the academic standards set by state testing,” the rest has taken a back seat. Contrast this with the language used at EduCon 2.1.
At EduCon the words that echoed in the halls were; students, collaboration, creating, change, connecting, talent, growth, etc. We focused on topics surrounding pedagogy, meeting diverse student needs, connecting curriculum to real life, developing a depth of understanding and inter-connectivity of content. I encourage you to take the time to view the sessions which were recorded by the students of Science Leadership Academy. The overarching themes, how to create change in our schools, how to help our students achieve more then just good test scores? How to get our schools to refocus and fulfill their stated missions?
What is my mission statement? Do I have an action plan to help me create change? What is my part in the big picture? I know what I believe about education.
- Education begins at birth and ends with death. It is not limited to what happens in schools.
- All people should be educated to reach their fullest potential; academic, creative and spiritual.
- Learning how to learn, reason and share what you know are fundamental to education.
- Learners should frequently ask themselves “how do I know what I know?” They need an understanding of the theory of knowledge.
- Education is an active process and often collaborative.
- Education must be adaptive and flexible to the changing needs of the learner and society.
- The desire to learn is an intrinsic value but it can be encouraged and fostered from without.
My mission statement as an educator in the role of K12 Technology Integration Specialist.
To support collaboration and communication between teachers, students and experts in the field. To assist in the development of learning environments that promote creative and academic excellence that incorporates the wide range of tools and learning strategies available today. To facilitate an understanding of how knowledge is created, shared and to foster analytical and critical thinking. To encourage creativity and experimentation among teacher and students and help them enjoy the process of learning and not just the product.
It needs work, it is just a draft, but it is the essence of my mission as I understand it thus far. Do I act on this everyday or do I only focus on a small part of the mission? Do I use this to guide my actions or is it just a lofty goal to which I only give lip service? I think I will need to look at my actions over the next few weeks and see how I’m doing.
So what’s your mission statement?
8 thoughts on “What’s Your Mission Statement?”
I think that mission statements are created with good intentions. Every school wants to try and accomplish those goals. I just recently a couple years ago joined the teaching sphere and the problem I find is that the state pushes and focuses so much on good grades and merit of the school that often teachers don’t have the time to focus on anything but “teach for test.”
My mission is to create open minded, excepting children. My goal is to find as many ways and tools to teach these children of what there is out there for them. It is not enough to simply teach whats in books, We have to develop creative, problem solving, and expressive children.
I love the idea of a personal mission statement (personal as opposed to organizational). I plan to bring this idea to my department. Maybe people will resonate to it and we will all be writing our mission statements! Thanks for the inspiration.
I think of this very thing when I’m overwhelmed. Why am I doing “this”? How can I accomplish “that”? In who’s best interest am I acting? Your post has nudged me to define and refine my mission statement. I find your mission statement very fitting for who you are and what you do. Your thoughts on school district’s mission statements are compelling and on target. I think we’re all guilty of wanting one thing but acting opposite to satisfy uncompromising directives from above.
I think that many people do spend time perfecting their mission statements and then fail to connect them to what they are actually teaching in their classrooms. I remember in college being told that reflection is the most important part of being a teacher. I now know, from personal experience and witnessing others, that not putting in the time and effort to reflect takes away from what we as teachers can be learning. Learning is a continuous process (as you pointed out, Beth) and I think teachers can forget that.
I do also want to agree with Diana’s comment that I think goals and mission statements are created with the best of intentions but for some reason, we do not connect what we want to happen, with what actually happens.
Tiffany,
From my experience the teachers I would love my children to learn with are those that frequently reflect on how things are going. They are also the teachers who invite feedback and comments from students.
Though teachers need to be responsible for their own growth I do believe schools can help with this process. Periodically schools need to take the mission statement off the wall give it a good dusting. They need to ask ,as a collective community, how are we doing? Is the mission revealed in what we do everyday? I would love a school to take all the committee meeting notes and do a Wordle. I wonder if the key words in their mission statement would appear?
Beth,
I know that my school doesn’t do this as often as they should. Because as you stated, we AREN’T doing what we say we are going to do. I believe that if schools made it a priority to continuously “check” their practices, the teachers would too.
I would like to hope that the key words would be in meeting notes but if not, all the more reason to be using that reflection time to assess changes that should be made.
How do you suggest one goes about discussing this with their administration?
I had never heard of a “personal” mission statement until I began my graduate level study and it was required of us. We had an assignment that required us to create a mission statement. I think the idea was great. I think everyone needs a mission statement. However; the problem is in the implementation and follow up. I see the mission statement that I wrote for that class as a goal. Through careful reflection and change of my teaching practices I want to someday live up to my mission.
I personally believe that mission statements are essential not only for personal growth but also to keep a team focused , motivated unified and producrtive and to resolve conflict. It needs to be practical simple and inspiring. Whenever there is a conflict of ideas we need to return to a clear mission statement to see what lines up. this in turn keep everyone eorking towards the same goals and that should be unity.