The school district mission statement = impossible
Oddly enough, if I say so myself, I’ve been examining mission statements – mostly school mission statements. Most are dreary, trite, unintelligible, easily-forgotten. Here’s one such:
“The mission of the ___ School District, in partnership with students, families and the community, is to provide a rigorous, meaningful and relevant education which prepares students to become productive members of an ever-changing global society.”
Here’s another: “The ___ School District will provide broad-based, effective, relevant curriculum to meet student needs in this ever-changing world. The ___ School District will provide quality instruction that meets the needs of all students.”
Maybe the districts’ proximity to one another is the reason they both trotted out the “ever-changing” phrase. Sorry, Laurel Highlands and Uniontown Area, you flunk the mission statement test: is it real, is there meat on the bone, is it memorable?
Of course it’s easy to imagine a world without a single mission statement. As one critic put it, speaking to the Education World website, most are not worth the paper they are written on, and those that are more than fluff are soon forgotten, “pushed to the background,” discarded, relegated to the principal’s waste basket.
“A lot is asked of the mission statement,” said Terry Heick, the founder and director of an outfit called Teach Thought. “They have to sell the school, please the superintendent, and rally the community.”
Heick, a self-described “humanist” and “futurist” (god help us), went on to say that mission statements frequently “read like inscriptions on national monuments, or the elegies of fallen heroes.” (The “technologist” Heick apparently has never been to the Lincoln Memorial nor read the brave words inscribed there.)
Still, the man has a point, kind of. The Uniontown and Laurel Highlands statements are a series of cliches melded to a series of “will provides.”
Other local schools do no better. Thus:
“… The Connellsville Area School District will provide a safe, diverse, and challenging educational environment dedicated to helping all students become respectful, responsible, and knowlegable life-long learners prepared to meet the challenges of an EVER-CHANGING GLOBAL SOCIETY.” (My emphasis.)
“The mission of the West Green School District is to provide educational opportunities to maximize individual potential.”
“The mission of the Bethlehem Center School District is to challenge the academic and social potential of all students through the cooperative efforts of the school community.”
Both Mary Fuller Frazier and Monessen start out okay before veering into banality.
“Our mission is to embrace our small size,” proclaims small-size Monessen, adding that the school district goal is to “increase student achievement and create life-long learners who celebrate diversity and are active in the community.”
Frazier wants to “empower students” by embracing “the responsible use of technology” and the utilization of “data driven decisions.” It ends on the well-trod path of “varied instructional strategies” and “a safe, nurturing environment.”
I like the Pine-Richland School District mission statement. Short on promises, it pledges to “focus on learning for every student every day.”
Richard Branson, the businessman, says “brevity” is the one essential. His mission statement for Virgin Atlantic Airways is “… to embrace the human spirit and let it fly.”
If the United States had a mission statement, I suppose it would be this, from the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The U.S. does have a logo — “Out of many, one.” I also like the words woven on the lining of the topcoat worn by Abraham Lincoln the night he was killed, “One country, one destiny.”
As for an education mission statement, I prefer this: “Our school is committed to preparing students to engage as adults in the labors of American democracy. We are committed to preparing students to live in a national and global community requiring steady learning and adaptability. We are committed to helping students realize their potential — in science, math and engineering, in language, history and the arts, in job preparation and the trades — and as thinkers and problem-solvers.”
Well, ok, let me think about it some more.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.