Running head: JONES (VISION STATEMENT) 1

Vision Statement

EDAD 614: Fall 2018

Josh Jones

Dr. Courtney Good & Dr. Josie Jackson

JONES (VISION STATEMENT) 2

People sometimes ask me why I became a teacher, or they ask me what led me to become

a teacher. At first, answering these questions proved very difficult for me, but over time I think

I’ve started to figure it out. I do know without a doubt that right now I love my job, I love the

people I work with, I love all the time I get to spend with my students and my colleagues. I know

in my heart I made the right decision when I chose this as a career. Going back though and

reflecting on exactly what got me to this point takes a lot more time and consideration on my

part. Slowly but surely, I’ve been able to pinpoint a few key influences in my life; they have led

me to where I am now. These influences have gently given me a vision of what teaching is and

have nudged me (sometimes not so gently) along the path to becoming who I am today. They are

why I have never regretted for a single moment viewing my classroom as much a part of me as

my home. Now, I am faced with answering the same question all over again as I take the next

step in my career and become an administrator. Now, I am tasked with defining what vision is

guiding me towards doing something that is more difficult, more time consuming, and more

exhausting than anything I’ve ever done. The more I think about it though, the more I realize

these same influences that have guided me throughout the years, are still very much a part of the

chorus in my head, still shaping me into who I am now.

One of the most defining influences in my life, is a philosophical perspective about the

world I live in and why I live in it. We live in a consumerist culture saturated with a “living for

the weekend” mentality. We also live in a culture that seeks to make life as easy and painless as

possible. I believe both of these tenets are counterintuitive to what truly defines us as human

beings. I believe pain is essential to growth and I believe we should not be working just so that

we can enjoy the time when we aren’t working. As idealistic as these two antithetical

perspectives may be, they are rooted deep in who I am and why I do what I do. I want to be
JONES (VISION STATEMENT) 3

challenged every day, I don’t want to be counting down the minutes on the clock wondering

when “my shift will be over”, and I want to feel like I am making a difference in the lives of

people. Teaching gives me all of this and I believe becoming an administrator will as well.

Fight Club, a not so subtle embodiment of this philosophy, tells an account of a man

named “Jack” who uses the word “tourist” to describe people that go through life without ever

fully being participants in it. I don’t want to be a tourist. I don’t want to feel when all is said and

done, I have merely been an observer without any real affect on the world I live in. In the same

vein, Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness tells the disheartening reality of hollow men, men

who go through life with no purpose and no way to find it. These men have “shape without

form” and “gesture without motion”. Over time, they have lost the ability to be anything of

consequence. This paralysis stems from a state of mind that has no point of reference, no

ennobling truth to guide one’s actions or beliefs. Again, in a Western culture that often guides

people’s perspectives to focus only on their own needs, over time creates people who can barely

see beyond themselves. I don’t want to be stuck by this “paralyz[ing] force”. I want to help

people and do everything I can to help them find the value and strength that is inside of them so

they in turn can help others.

I have to admit that living overseas a good portion of my life as a missionary kid has also

left a heavy imprint on who I am and why I do what I do. When you have lived in a world where

the necessities are people’s primary concern, it gives you quite a bit of perspective on what really

matters. Morocco, while not the poorest of the African countries, holds within its walls very

accurate representatives of want. As my parents reached out to help where they could, I was able

to immerse myself in a culture completely different from the one I grew up in and gain some key

insight outside of the limitations to which comfort and security constrain so many people. Most
JONES (VISION STATEMENT) 4

Moroccans don’t have time to check Instagram for hours at a time, or wonder if they’ll be able to

afford that expensive new car they really want, or stress out about what “so and so” thinks of

their new outfit. Instead, they worry about things like how are they going to put food on the table

tomorrow. This experience has instilled in me an awareness of need. I am no Mother Theresa and

you don’t see me helping out down at the soup kitchens after school every day, but I know deep

down inside we live in a world where people lack a lot, physically, mentally, socially and

emotionally. Being an educator indirectly provides me with an opportunity to play a small role in

helping meet these needs. By bringing this awareness to those students I am fortunate enough to

teach and those colleagues I am fortunate enough to collaborate with, I hope to inspire others to

work towards addressing the great needs of the world we live in. As much as I’d like to think I

have the power to do anything, I am realistic enough to realize the limitations of my power, but

the more people I can encourage to work towards these greater goals, the more we just might

start to see things get better.

I would be remiss to not mention probably the greatest influence in my life, my wife. She

is part of who I am today and has greatly shaped my perspective. She is kind, and sensitive, and

humble. She is also fiery, and strong, and passionate. Spending a great deal of my time with her

has allowed some of who she is to seep into who I am. Her voice and her presence have made me

better and have pushed me farther than I ever would have gone on my own. There are times

when I would have given up or not believed in myself if it were not for her strengthening

presence alongside me. Anything that is me, she has made better and she pushes me to be better

every day. Complacency is not a part of her dictionary and she has not allowed it to be part of

mine on days when I may have wished for it to be so. I owe to her who I am now. I am certainly

not perfect and I am grateful to her for believing in me and supporting me as I sometimes
JONES (VISION STATEMENT) 5

stumble down the rocky path of life. Humbly, I admit she has made me realize more and more

that people need people. As much as we wish to be independent and capable, we can do so much

more when we don’t try to go through the world alone.

I am a teacher and now I want to be an administrator, and as I have already suggested, I

seem to want both for the same reasons. Both are goals I have aspired towards as a result of the

same influences and the same ideals. The biggest difference between the two being that as an

administrator I will have a much wider range of influence. With all this in mind and with the

goal of being as direct and simple as possible, here is my vision going forward. I want to

challenge people to be better people and I want to do whatever I can to help them make this

happen so that together we can do what is best for students. Infused in this guiding purpose is the

profound necessity of creating an awareness of the world around us and its needs over our needs,

of realizing that avoiding difficult and challenging paths promotes stagnant complacency, and of

believing one can accomplish great tasks through the combined strength and effort of our

collective will. As Dr. Goode pointed out in one of our sessions, what we do as administrators

will leave a lasting legacy wherever we are placed as leaders, for better or for worse. Wherever I

go and whatever I do, I want to finish the journey knowing that what is left is not a memory of

who I was or what I did, but instead the actual reality of a place where people can work together

to make things better.