When starting a business or a new venture, the common practice calls for interested and invested parties to articulate what will happen in the business. In days of old, one might have an idea, sketch out an outline, and then start doing the business. Today, though, we’ve come a long ways: today, we subject all parties to scripting inspiration for decades to come. I’m referring to, of course, the dreaded mission statement.

My first taste of carving my person mission statement into the tree of time was through Covey training at the current school that I’m employed. The 7 Habits for Highly Effective People permeated all business and many educational institutions (I’ve lost track of which metaphor we’re one now…I lost interest around the Fish! and the Whales motif). I had done the DayTimer thing (along with many others) and found that I liked some of the stuff Covey had to offer (especially the idea that you arrange your time around relationships, not appointments). But, and those of you that still have your Covey Planner somewhere, the first step is: Begin with the End in Mind(tm). And we got to spend some time molding a mission statement that reflected our lives and values, dreams and desires, hopes and … well, you get the idea.

I can’t remember mine now, and in a way, the process became really tedious. And I remember looking around during our training and then I couldn’t help remember the part in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy where the ship filled with middle-management people can’t get anything done because, though they had successfully held regularly scheduled meetings, they hadn’t even invented fire.

Sometimes the process of business is absurd. And I think a good place to start is to rip down those silly mission statements. Especially ones that have anything to do with technology.

For example, let’s take a look at what gets emphasized in the cover letter of the Indiana Plan for Digital-Age Learning. (BTW, it had three addressees: the governor, the state superintendent, and “Fellow Indiana Education Stakeholders”). After some introductory remarks, we get the mission statement in the second graf:
“Indiana’s K-12 schools, under the guidance of excellent teachers, to engage in self-directed, lifelong Digital-Age learning — as individuals, in learning communities, and with their families– as they strive for rigorous academic excellence in today’s high-tech, global society.”
Now, to be fair, they are calling this the “vision”…still, it’s a fairly typical mission statement that reminds me of what would score high on the writing portion of the state writing section.
And, it lacks any passion that education can (and should) inspire in individuals. Let’s break it down and see what is lurking (or missing) from the words.

Indiana’s K-12 schools
What is missing here is the whole K-16 movement. The colleges are not a part of this plan and probably shouldn’t be.

under the guidance of excellent teachers
This seems suspect to me. The plan will call for teachers to mentor other teachers in technology. I have a feeling this is what Jan Weir is currently doing and I have a feeling that this committee is using her work as a model of how best to teach teachers: with teachers. This staff development model (National Writing Project is based on it) is a sound one, but often overlooked when glossy brochures will show how your school can get higher test scores with little or no additional work. I’ll probably come back to this phrase, but my gut feeling tells me that it will be hardest one to implement. Instead, having someone come in and do Professional Development on technology is much easier. I also don’t believe the word “guidance”; I can’t imagine that classroom teachers will be given the reigns to guide the program

to engage in self-directed
This is the promise of current trends in education: to make kids independent and to direct their learning. Sounds good, but there’s little out there to engage students that much (with a state curriculum to get through?) Most teachers are not trained in this type of learning and it’s probably not the best way for all students.

lifelong Digital-Age learning
Wow! If this isn’t a buzzword ready to take flight. The “lifelong” part is from the days of interviewing for a teaching job and our “philosophy of education.” Everyone says that they want to encourage “lifelong” learning…perhaps it is the goal of education. Again, if it really happens is a completely different story and there are too many factors to measure this part of the vision. You probably had at least one teacher that you connected with and inspired you to do…something. The problem is, not all teachers connect with all students and that’s probably because we are all human and slightly self-centered and it might have something to do with the idea that we are not all Lego pieces. “Digital-Age learning” is the weight of the document, and I will have to come back to this one later. In short: it’s trying to align with the 21st Century Skills and it’s an educational buzzword that perhaps had meaning once, but now is void (which means it will enter into the political jargon just in time for elections). [In doing more checking, there’s little on the 21st Century Skills site for this term. My guess is since it was referred to at the Milken site, it may be a word that Cheryl Lemke of the Metiri Group uses in writing state technology plans].

— as individuals, in learning communities, and with their families–
This is a qualifying section, as is true with many visionmission statements. This, again, emphasizes current trends within education: the individual work, the group work and the connection with families. Group work is probably over-emphasized in educational circles. There is little reason why we do “group work” besides helping kids work with one another because “that’s how it’s done in the real world.” My instinct (and my non-educational work experience) tells me that I should concentrate on what I do rather than what my groups is (or should be) doing. The family part seems to be out of place and is probably there to pull in all “shareholders.”

as they strive for rigorous academic excellence in today’s high-tech, global society.
Lots of stuff going on here, but it is really the goal of this educational plan: to be competitive with the world market. Eduspeak such as “rigorous” and “excellence” are very common today and reflect the continuing thought that schools are not doing their jobs and just need to work harder at learning the kids more so that the next generation can win the game.

And what is missing from this visionmission statement? We’re talking about technology and we’re talking about education and this has absolutely no passion in the words. None. Even if we are discussing a purpose that I don’t concur with, there’s nothing to wrap our imagination around. (You want passion in business literature? Try reading Tom Peter’s blog or Re-Imagine! and not get excited, mad, angry or wowed).

Instead, the business model, in very business-like form of a visionmission statement, removes from education the one thing that all of us remember: someone or something that inspired us to do something beyond us.