Mission Statements: A Cautionary Tale
According to George E. Hein, "Museums are primarily educational institutions; what makes them public institutions for the preservation of culture is their educational work" ("The Role of Museums in Society: Education and Social Action," 2005). A public school district is, by its very definition, also an educational institution. The following is the story of one such district, which provides a cautionary tale about mission statements.
In 2012, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), with the support of the Los Angeles Board of Education, decided to eliminate the district's longstanding adult education division. This division served about 250,000 adult students, employed approximately 1,700 professional educators, operated in hundreds of main campus and branch locations, and provided instruction in English as a Second Language, Citizenship, Vocational Education, Adult Secondary Education, Parent Education, and Education for Older Adults. The division operated under the umbrella of the LAUSD mission statement: "The teachers, administrators and staff of the Los Angeles Unified School District believe in the equal worth and dignity of all students and are committed to educate all students to their maximum potential."
Because of public opposition, the school district was not able to implement its plan, but it did cut the division by two-thirds, establishing class waiting lists for students, laying off teachers, closing campuses, and cancelling programs. The superintendent and board of education effectively rewrote the district's mission statement with their actions. The adult students were not treated with "equal worth and dignity," and the district was not "committed to [educating] all students to their maximum potential."
As an adult educator with the district, I believed in the mission statement and carried out my work with a sense of shared mission. But when I was suddenly out of a job, I realized that the mission statement was only as valid as the actions supporting it. In plain English, actions speak louder than words. When an institution-whether a public school district or a museum-treats poorly the public it is supposedly serving or the staff members who are carrying out the organizational mission, then the institution effectively annuls its mission statement.
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Gregory Dobie
Editor/Educator/Writer
Sherman Oaks CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-24-2015 04:22 PM
From: Alyssa Greenberg
Subject: Invitation: AAM 2015 "Rogue Session" -- How Do We Turn the Social Justice Lens Inward? A Conversation About Internal Museum Labor Practices
This message has been cross posted to the following Discussions: Museum Junction Open Forum and 2015 Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo .
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This conversation cultivates a space for emerging museum professionals, graduate students, and museum staff members to consider the 2015 AAM conference theme "The Social Value of Museums: Inspiring Change" in the context of internal museum practices including hiring, leadership, and working environment. This conversation is a "rogue session" and we invite you to join us outside of the conference. Our goals are to provide a forum to begin this conversation, to counteract the silence/taboo around discussing labor in museums, and to examine how working conditions impact diversity in museum staffs.
In contrast to the dominance of museum leaders' voices in the discourse of social justice in museums, this conversation is facilitated by a diverse team of emerging museum professionals who are uniquely aware of the challenges presented by working in this field, particularly barriers to entry and advancement rooted in race and class. We approach this conversation with a shared perspective: Many museums have a stated commitment to acting as agents of social change, but we see an inconsistency between this mission and museums' internal labor practices. We believe that only once museums recognize and resolve their internal inequalities can they truly begin to act as agents as social change. Participants who may critique or challenge this perspective are equally as welcome as those who agree.
Our intentions are to amplify and support social-justice-oriented museum professionals' statements that the internal transformation of museums is a necessary step toward enacting social change, and to facilitate a conversation that leads to action.
The details:
How Do We Turn the Social Justice Lens Inward? A Conversation About Internal Museum Labor Practices
Tuesday, April 28th
6:00-7:30pm
Ger-Art Gallery
674 11th Street NW
Atlanta, GA
Ger Art Gallery (https://www.facebook.com/Ger.Art.Dealing) is a new space in Atlanta to show modern and contemporary art from Latin America, with a growing interest in showing local art and serving as a cultural bridge between the two.
The gallery can be somewhat difficult to get to via public transportation, and we encourage you to use a taxi. Stay tuned, we hope to figure out a way for participants to connect for sharing a cab from the conference to Ger-Art Gallery.
For more information: MuseumWorkersSpeak@gmail.com
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MuseumWorkersSpeak
Follow us on Twitter: @MuseumWorkers
Because space is limited at the gallery, we encourage you to RSVP so that we can anticipate the number of participants. RSVP form:
We will be using the hashtag #MuseumWorkersSpeak to get the conversation started on Twitter -- please join us!
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Alyssa Greenberg
Doctoral Candidate, Department of Art History
University Of Illinois At Chicago
Chicago IL
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