Personal Vision

What is my personal vision for the work that I do? At this point I have only pieces of understanding. I do not have a clear understanding of my own purpose.

• Improving educational attainment for First Nations, Metis and Inuit students
• Leading schools to more equitable treatment of students
• Connecting students to real world change projects
• Creating a world that is kinder and more self-aware for my children.

Now how do I turn this into a personal vision?


The above was written as a final reflection for an MBA class on strategy. I left out some of my ideas on capitalism and environmentalism because I thought that the last two points captured my philosophical ground that the world is changing and that change ought to be good. I always thought that it was in Chinese philosophy, but the google (more specifically the Internet encyclopedia of philosophy), tells me that it was Heraclitus who talked about the nature of existence always changing and used the metaphor of the river.

According to both Plato and Aristotle, Heraclitus held extreme views that led to logical incoherence. For he held that (1) everything is constantly changing and (2) opposite things are identical, so that (3) everything is and is not at the same time. In other words, Universal Flux and the Identity of Opposites entail a denial of the Law of Non-Contradiction. Plato indicates the source of the flux doctrine: "Heraclitus, I believe, says that all things go and nothing stays, and comparing existents to the flow of a river, he says you could not step twice into the same river"

"On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow." Heraclitus

My personal application of this idea follows that every student is always different and how to reach them will continually change (the water), but the endeavour of teaching the love of learning (the river) will still remain the same. In this way, as I understand it, the river is always changing, and it is in awareness of this change that I am able to achieve unity of purpose.

So the world is changing, and my personal vision embraces this idea of change because it allows for the possibility of improvement. The horrors of the world and the cruelty that we all know is out there can be debilitating. Raising my family into this world I have to believe that improvements are not only possible, but inevitable. This foundation also suits the first two aspects of my personal vision from that reflection paper.

The EPSB vision is "Transforming the learners of today into the leaders of tomorrow."

I like that word transforming, but for now I am going to start crafting my own personal vision with the word change.

So far my personal vision is this: "Change ..."