Questions for reflection
1. What is the role of the school’s mission? Are there limits to this values system?
2. Should the principal’s leadership always be beholden to the school’s educational plan?
3. Is it wise to encourage talented but disadvantaged students at technical high schools to
invest more time in prolonging their education, even if this means placing the financial
needs of their families as a second priority?
4. At what moment can the school safely say that its educational mission has been fulfilled?
5. Would you consider ‘successful’ an educational institution that responds to specific jobs
needs in the surrounding community?
1. What is the role of the school’s mission? Are there limits to this values system?
Answer:
According to Glossary of Education Reform, “A mission is a public declaration that schools or
other educational organizations use to describe their founding purpose and major organizational
commitments—i.e., what they do and why they do it. A mission statement may describe a school’s
day-to-day operational objectives, its instructional values, or its public commitments to its students
and community.”
Dr. Roderick De Luna was a science teacher and technical coordinator at a school run by a
Catholic congregation. With students from preschoolers to 12th graders, the school’s most
important objective was that of helping students develop academically and as human beings,
with an emphasis on respect for others, human values and the Catholic doctrine.
Dr. Roderick De Luna new school,
The school’s academic objectives were focused on turning out graduates with a first-rate
vocational-technical high school diploma to facilitate their entry into the job market. The school
also identified itself as a Catholic institution, in which the children were to be educated according
to the values of faith and the Christian doctrine, encouraging the integration of the family.
Are there limits to this values system?
As a leader, we are responsible for the school mission. This is the guiding principles in all our
action and activities in the school. There should no limits to this values system?
Poverty, student attitudes and behaviors or in pandemic situation, learning must continue.
2. Should the principal’s leadership always be beholden to the school’s educational plan?