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A educational institution's "mission statement" should reveal the foundational values of the school. Let's compare two of them just for fun - Harvard College and Wyoming Catholic College.
Harvard College:
"Harvard College adheres to the purposes for which the Charter of 1650 was granted: 'The advancement of all good literature, arts, and sciences; the advancement and education of youth in all manner of good literature, arts, and sciences; and all other necessary provisions that may conduce to the education of the … youth of this country….'
In brief: Harvard strives to create knowledge, to open the minds of students to that knowledge, and to enable students to take best advantage of their educational opportunities. To these ends, the College encourages students to respect ideas and their free expression, and to rejoice in discovery and in critical thought; to pursue excellence in a spirit of productive cooperation; and to assume responsibility for the consequences of personal actions. Harvard seeks to identify and to remove restraints on students’ full participation, so that individuals may explore their capabilities and interests and may develop their full intellectual and human potential. Education at Harvard should liberate students to explore, to create, to challenge, and to lead. The support the College provides to students is a foundation upon which self-reliance and habits of lifelong learning are built: Harvard expects that the scholarship and collegiality it fosters in its students will lead them in their later lives to advance knowledge, to promote understanding, and to serve society."
Note that the second part of the statement, which elaborates on the school's purpose as set forth in 1650, does not mean the same thing at all as the clear and precise language of the original charter. The phrase "create knowledge" is immediately suspicious. Knowledge, in the ordinary sense, is not created but discovered. What on earth could it mean to "create" knowledge? To say that "Harvard strives to create knowledge, to open the minds of students to that knowledge ..." is to say that Harvard is the source and origin of the knowledge it imparts to students. Harvard is therefore not a guide, but a god. The implication is that reality itself is something man creates rather than masters.
The admonition "to respect ideas and their free expression" is boilerplate political correctness and self-refuting nonsense. Are all ideas worthy of respect? Really? How about the idea that some ideas are not worthy of respect? I didn't think so.
The rest is sufficiently vague and ambiguous as to be inoffensive, but we are still left wondering what it is the college really believes about education. Perhaps the answer lies in what the statement doesn't say. Note the total absence of any reference to truth, wisdom, or virtue - or even any reference to what, specifically, will be studied.
Wyoming Catholic College
"Wyoming Catholic College is a four-year college committed to offering a liberal arts education that steeps its students in the awesome beauty of our created, natural world and imbues them with the best that has been thought and said in Western civilization, including the moral and intellectual heritage of the Catholic Church. The College strives to promote a love of learning, an understanding of natural order, and the quest for virtuous living so that its graduates will assume their responsibilities as citizens in a free society.
Its curriculum and campus are devoted to the formation of the whole person, i.e., the spiritual, physical and intellectual dimensions. Studies include the classics of imaginative literature, history, mathematics, science, philosophy, fine arts, and theology. They employ the Great and Good Books as well as the natural created world, effecting a rich combination of intellectual and experiential-poetic knowledge. Students' imaginations are enriched and their capacity for wonder deepened. Moreover, students and faculty share in a campus life that reflects the ideals taught directly and indirectly in the classroom.
In the Catholic tradition, emphasis is placed not on the dissemination of information, but rather on the development and perfection of the intellect, the passions, and the will, enabling students to approach and embrace the good, the true, and the beautiful throughout their lives.
In addressing the whole person the College contributes to the students' spiritual and moral formation. This is done via Catholic culture, context, and traditions. The College is staunchly faithful to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church and the deposit of faith handed down over the past two thousand years."
That the college is staunchly Catholic is clear enough. It's helpful to have all the cards on the table at the outset.
Moving on, note the specificity of WCC's goals: "imbues ... with the best that has been thought and said in Western civilization", "promote ... an understanding of natural order and the quest for virtuous living", "emphasis on ... the development and perfection of the intellect, the passions, and the will", etc.
Likewise, note the specificity of what will be studied: "the classics of imaginative literature, history, mathematics, science, philosophy, fine arts, and theology ... the Great and Good Books as well as the natural created world".
Well, you can draw your own conclusions from this. Personally, I believe these two statements are representative of current trends. Our elite schools across the board seem to be retreating from the concrete ideals of liberal education on the undergraduate level, and insofar as they are pursuing objective educational goals - it's genuinely hard to tell - these are hiding behind deliberate vagueness and ambiguity.
It is a complete and utter joke to pretend that the catholic school promotes the science while completely and utterly rejecting the central tenet of biology, evolution.
It is a complete and utter joke to pretend that the catholic school promotes the science while completely and utterly rejecting the central tenet of biology, evolution.
The joke is that you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. WCC is a great books school. Students there actually read Darwin (Senior Year, Science, "The Origin of Species"). Evolution is not the "central tenet" of biology, not even close.
It is a complete and utter joke to pretend that the catholic school promotes the science while completely and utterly rejecting the central tenet of biology, evolution.
Actually, the 'official' Catholic stance is that they fully accept evolution and its centrality to the biological sciences. However once in a while I will run across a Catholic who isn't aware of that.
As for the OP, most mission statements seem full of whatever buzzwords are 'in' at the time they were written.
The joke is that you have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. WCC is a great books school. Students there actually read Darwin (Senior Year, Science, "The Origin of Species") Evolution is not the "central tenet" of biology, not even close.
One, whoopdee doo about reading OoS, at my high school, FRESHMAN read it and more important, they understand it.
Two, as a working researcher with a graduate degree in Biology, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that evolution and evolutionary theory are the central tenets to biology the exact same way atoms and atomic theory are to Chemistry and the way Newton's laws are to classic Physics.
Actually, the 'official' Catholic stance is that they fully accept evolution and its centrality to the biological sciences. However once in a while I will run across a Catholic who isn't aware of that.
As for the OP, most mission statements seem full of whatever buzzwords are 'in' at the time they were written.
No they do not "fully accept evolution", they accept theistic evolution. It is certainly more open minded than most religions towards evolution, but a scientific stance that relies on special creation and then allows for evolution, is not fully accepting of the sciences period.
Deciding what the conclusion is before looking at the evidence is definitively NOT science.
One, whoopdee doo about reading OoS, at my high school, FRESHMAN read it and more important, they understand it.
Really? Freshmen at your high school read "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life"? Very impressive. How'd all that "favoured races" business go over with the teachers and students? Would love to have been a fly on the wall during your class discussions! Most freshmen at my high school wouldn't have made it through the introduction. But then I went to a public school.
I'd love to talk more about you, but getting back on topic, is it your opinion that most Harvard undergrads have already read and understood the text in high school? Because they're not likely to read it at Harvard.
You'll find many other classic science texts in the WCC syllabus, including Galileo, Einstein, Newton, Bacon, Mendel, De Koninck, etc. WCC is a new school, sort of a "daughter" of Thomas Aquinas College, from where many graduates have gone on to careers in science and medicine. So I doubt their lack of appreciation for the "centrality of evolution" gets in the way of their understanding biology.
Last edited by WesternPilgrim; 12-13-2012 at 06:19 PM..
Actually, the 'official' Catholic stance is that they fully accept evolution and its centrality to the biological sciences. However once in a while I will run across a Catholic who isn't aware of that.
Not quite. Catholic doctrine permits, but does not require, belief in human evolution within some very strict parameters, despite some recent non-magisterial statements by popes that seem more "open". A Catholic must believe in a literal Adam and Eve, for example, and that Adam and Eve were the first created humans and the only progenitors of the human race. Belief in special creation is also permitted in various forms, including the much derided literal interpretation of a six-day creation week and a young earth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eresh
As for the OP, most mission statements seem full of whatever buzzwords are 'in' at the time they were written.
Buzzwords are relevant. They tell us something about the people who use them, especially when they are carefully chosen, as in a college mission statement.
No they do not "fully accept evolution", they accept theistic evolution. It is certainly more open minded than most religions towards evolution, but a scientific stance that relies on special creation and then allows for evolution, is not fully accepting of the sciences period.
Deciding what the conclusion is before looking at the evidence is definitively NOT science.
Actually, they do - even the evolution of primates including our own species. The Pope's stance is that it's fine as long as science doesn't try to address when the "soul" came in (which of course science doesn't)
fwiw, my research is in evolution education.
How can an education really be a liberal education if it only focuses on western thought?
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