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?