Does Your Charter Have a Philosophy?

This may be a weak post for this blog, but I was having lunch with a fellow charter friend today. I'm primarily a finance and organizational management geek with some academic experience. My friend is a teacher and instructional philosophy type and we were mostly talking about his field. So, most of what I'm writing are insights that he has had over this career.

The one that stuck out to me is that many charters begin with the idea that they want to improve education. They might even have some methods that they want to use, but they often don't have a philosophy that holds it all together. Afterall, a program is not the same as a philosophy.

So, I started thinking through the charters that I'm familiar with around the country. I began to sort of count program vs. philosophy in those schools. It's interesting that while most of those schools have a mission. It was hard to really determine whether or not they had a "philosophy."

So, then I began wondering whether or not a philosophy is really important. Was my friend correct? As I said, I'm not primarily a philosophy guy, but I thought about the many college courses that I've taught over the past seventeen years. I realized that part of my problem when I first began teaching was that I didn't have a philosophy. I had outlines and notes and activities. I had tests and assignments to measure defined student outcomes. I also realized that I've become a better teacher now that I've developed a philosophy of teaching.

So, (and, yes, I do realize I've got a lot of "so" in this blog) I decided that my friend's insights probably are valid. A teacher and, to have consistency, a school must have a philosophy to be truly effective. Does your school have a philosophy? Is there an overarching philosophy guiding your instruction or is it just method? Do you know why this method? Do you know what kind of students you want to produce and why? Is your philosophy well stated so that everyone on staff understands it and buys in?

Perhaps I'll have my friend write the next blog. What do you think? Do you need a philosophy?