Problems in American Education - Part 11: Mission

There is a continuous battle waged in education, though quietly and unnoticed by most observers, between pragmatists and philosophers. This essay will be written from the philosophers’ point of view because I believe that they are somewhat ignored in the overall scheme of how most schools are run. You can make a pretty educated guess as to where I place myself on the spectrum between the two extremes.

Working in the field of education is hard work. Many people not in the field don’t realize how difficult it is to work with kids all day and hope that, by the time you reach dismissal, you have accomplished something. Constant pressure from the outside in the form of parents, higher administrators, Boards of Education, state requirements, etc. compound that difficulty, making the profession very complicated and draining. It takes vast amounts of energy, both intellectually and emotionally, to be an effective educator. Many taxpayers don’t believe it, but when an educator gets to June, he or she really does need a summer off. I don’t know of any other line of work, with the possible exception of air traffic controller, that requires such consisten intensity of focus and precise planning for such a prolonged period of time and under such large doses of pressure. That is just the way it is at this time in the history of the profession.

This means that each and every day is a struggle in our schools. Both teachers and administrators immerse themselves in daily schedules, hour after hour, and period after period, in which they must concentrate on getting through the day safely and productively. This is why pragmatism is so prevalent in the way educators think and act. Particularly in administration, there is little time to step back and take a look at the big picture. Many administrators habitually and inevitably are forced to fall into the habit of emphasizing short term management over creative long term leadership because they evolve into the belief that such a posture is a necessary survival skill. The seasoned veteran administrator often becomes cynical and gets to the point where he or she starts to look at philosophical educational issues as idealistic, ivory tower wastes of time. The here and now take control, and that is very understandable when an overwhelmed administrator is repeatedly besieged with questions and issues related to budget preparation, budget defense, school maintenance, staff development, parent pressure, bus schedules, class schedules, ancillary duty schedules, lunch supervision, endless administrative meetings, night work, and, of course, discipline. Pragmatic positioning in the face of all that is certainly understandable. The problem is, however, that it is not acceptable.

Any institution, if it is to be effective, needs to have a clear mission - a set of principles that guide the institution and that are referred to often as the institution progresses through time. The medium of the mission becomes the message of the institution and gives life and purpose to that institution. An institution cannot be effective in what it is doing unless it knows what it is doing and why it is doing it.

I once argued with a someone about this point. The person contended that having a mission is like putting on your clothing. It becomes habit, a standard operating procedure. With all due respect, my feeling was that the person's position was like those that say you write your mission statement and then put it away somewhere in a drawer, secure in the understanding that you gained by simply going through the process of creation. What this fails to recognize is that such practice does not insure adherence to any kind of positive direction on a daily, weekly, monthly, etc. basis. You are driving a car without any idea about where you are going.

The school’s mission, in my opinion, needs to be a intensively researched, developed, and communicated; and then it needs to be used as a living document that is consciously on the minds of all who apply it on a daily basis. Leadership is the key in getting that done. Every school needs a resident philosopher, usually the principal, who insures that constant application of mission is something on the minds of all members of the staff at all times. Absence of such leadership almost certainly insures a much more chaotic school subject to frequent changes of direction, inefficiency, and confusion over what is being done and why it is being done.

The obvious implication is that the person who leads a school needs to not only promote its mission, but he or she also needs to be a thinking person with ideas and passions that override the clatter of daily survival. This person will be effective because he or she, through the passion for thinking, serves as a focal point for others. Efficiency and economy of effort become positive by-products in such a school, but the real benefit is that the school has confidence and direction. Despite the abstractions involved in this position, It is a common sensical approach to what ails education today; but it is amazing how infrequently this notion is promoted or even explored.