在讲美国私立高中办学核心之前，我想先回顾一下一个熟悉的现象：在中国，孩子从幼儿园开始家长就拼命往资源最丰富的或者名气最大的那家塞，找关系或者捐钱等等。记得自己读小学一年级的时候，在同一个学校，母亲都要找最好的那个班。但是问题是孩子小学毕业了，中学毕业了，高中毕业了，甚至大学毕业了，每一个阶段都有不同的发展需求，孩子到底学到了什么，长大了多少，各方面的健康程度的发展，如身体，头脑，道德, 不知道做父母自己都是否清楚。如果只以进入理想的下一个阶段的学校为目标，是非常狭隘的。为什么呢？因为毕竟上学校不是最终的目标，最后还是要让社会考验的。

你送孩子去一所学校之前，应该要了解该学校对学生是怎么样培养的。中国的各个学校都会说德，智，体全面发展，或者是全面的素质教育，但是问题是德，智，体三个方面，学校是采取什么方法确定达到自己所表述的那样的效果？学校有没有同家长定期沟通，进行反馈？学生毕业的时候，学校又用什么方法衡量学生都是否达到标了呢？如果没有达到，学校该负不负责任呢？该负多少责任呢？

现在来讲美国的私立高中的办学核心(因为私立教育是美国教育的先锋)。每一所私立高中都有自己的Mission Statement (办学宗旨)。宗旨分三个部分：
a)学校以什么样理念培养学生
b)本校适合服务哪种类的人（各个学校都有自己的特色，有适合的对象和不适合的对象）
c)本校要培养出什么样的人

每个学校的statement 都会有自己的特色，当然有些东西是教育共享性的。下面是Philips Exeter’s 宗旨，考考你能否从这里读出它是怎么样的一所学校（如果你知道该校，请先抛开你对它的认识）。主要部分已下划线。

The founder of Phillips Exeter Academy defined its mission more than two centuries ago. "Above all," John Phillips stated, "it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care; well considering that though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind."

Exeter today continues the commitment to unite knowledge and goodness. It seeks students who combine proven academic ability, intellectual curiosity, and tenacity with decency and good character. At the Academy, exacting inquiry and thoughtful discourse foster the life of the mind, instruction and activity promote fitness and health, and the daily interactions of a residential school nurture integrity, empathy, and kindness. Because learning and growth at Exeter arise from each individual's engagement with others, the richness of education here requires diversity in all its dimensions; students and faculty value the differences they bring to the community they share.

The challenges that students meet at Exeter and the support they receive have a common purpose: to stimulate their development as individuals and as members of society. Exeter seeks to graduate young people whose creativity and independence of thought sustain their continuing inquiry and reflection, whose interest in others and the world around them surpasses their self-concern, and whose passion for learning impels them beyond what they already know.

Mission Statement(MS) 是一个学校的中心，任何其它都是以这个中心服务的。比如说某个老师想开创新课或者说学校同国外的学校建立关系，最后都要回到这个MS. 如果符合，就去做；不符合，那就没有意义。