Ever looked closely at the word decide?
It comes from the Latin decidere — meaning ‘to cut off’ or ‘to kill.’ Just like homicide, pesticide or even suicide, to decide is to kill off all other options.
It’s not a maybe. It’s not a “We’ll see.” It’s done. Over. Finished.
Which makes me wonder: How many of us in schools are actually deciding… and how many are just dabbling?
Teachers, I’m looking at you here. When you say you’ve “decided” not to waste time on the seventeenth investigation about who threw the pencil, but then still go chasing CCTV footage or polling the class like it’s a jury trial… you haven’t actually decided. You’ve flirted with a better way – maybe even name-dropped P3P3F3 in the staffroom – but you haven’t killed off the alternative.
Same goes when you say you don’t want to be a talking head at the front of the room anymore. What would I actually see in your classroom now that “barking content” is off the table? Are students leading learning? Are they motivated by their own progress more than your performance? Are you moving, checking, connecting? Because if you’re still glued to the PowerPoint and waiting for compliance… again, that’s not a decision. That’s a wish.
And school leaders? Your turn. You say you want to change, transform or prioritise school culture. You say you want to reduce workload and lift engagement. But what have you killed off lately to make that happen?
Did you actually remove a hoop your staff keep jumping through to exhaustion? Did you cancel a pointless meeting or scrap a program that looks good on paper but flunks in practice? Or did you just… tweak the Term 2 timetable?
Playing it safe is not a decision. Hiding behind another “wellbeing” or “engagement” program is not a decision. That’s indecision in a better suit.
If you really decide, something has to die.
So, what are you willing to bury?
Because your teachers – and your students – are often merely survivors of what you refused to kill.
Keep fighting that good fight,
P.S. Talking of student engagement – it often comes up as one of those particularly hard nuts to crack in schools. Join my first online workshop for 2025, the Student Engagement Overhaul.
I’ve designed it specifically for school leaders, because your staff don’t need another PL Day or motivational pep talk. They need a plan that works – in real classrooms, with real students.
Want to subscribe to Adam’s Home Truths? Simply subscribe here.