One the one hand, taking a simple view, I cannot but agree with Fred Nickols
when he writes:
>In point of fact, schools have no goals, people do. So, when we speak
>and write of school's goals, we are really talking about one or more
>perspectives of schools and one or more persons who hold those
>perspectives, not the schools per se; the schools themselves are
>incapable of holding any view or perspective.
But, on the other hand, if one makes distinctions among:
(1)"Stated" (or sometimes "intended") goals
(2)"Implicit" goals -- i.e. goals implied by actions
(3)Individuals' beliefs about (1) or (2)
I think it is the case that one can say that schools, themselves, have
goals. It is very clear to me that schools, as institutions, have
implicit goals -- I can look at the collective results of what a school
does and infer them. It is also clear that schools, as institutions, have
stated goals. Here the only confusion is that sometimes they have
different stated goals stated by different groups with different
perspectives. But having different stated goals is not the same as having
no goals.
I also think it is common practice to say that institutions or groups have
goals -- and it certainly makes sense to me to infer implicit goals from
the actions of groups or institutions. In fact, it is quite a useful way
to talk about institutions and to try to understand them as
purposeful/goal-seeking entities.
Businesses and other organizations certainly take a lot of trouble to
define and state their goals. These goal statements are used (very
consciously or not so consciously, very purposefully or not so, etc.) to
guide decision making and daily behavior or the individuals constituting
the organizations. To say that not all constituencies share the same
goals for an organization (a fair statement) is not to say that the
organization, in its functioning, does not act as if it had a goal. I
think it is fair, and good language practice, to say that when an
institution acts in such a way so as to reach a particular set of
outcomes, those outcomes are the institution's (implicit, actual) goal.
--"John Gunkler" <jgunkler@sprintmail.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>