At a recent college event, the president of a local institution pointed to a mission statement: the college aspires, he said, to be in the top 20 small liberal arts colleges. Another college in my acquaintance wants to be the best women's college in the country. And my kid's clinic wants also to be the best in some field or other.
I think there is something deeply nutty here that should be stopped. It seems to me beneath the dignity of an institution to tailor its programs or its ideals to the standard set by some other institution. If they jump off a cliff, as a matter of vision, of mission, of principle, we jump off a cliff -- and we aspire to be among the first 20 off the cliff, should jumping become popular.
This is just a category mistake. One wants of course to be respected, but one cannot aim at being respected without seriously assinine consequences. One needs to aim at being worthy of respect, and hope that respect follows worth.
When I was at Macalester, my teacher David White talked a lot about what we should be striving for, what every reasonable philosophy preached as the goal worth striving for: full humanity. Now there's a notion to put in a vision statement.
Posted by shea0017 at July 6, 2004 11:59 AM