Ethics Over Tactics

A quick reflection on school administrator directives.

Having now spent two full decades at work teaching kids (with a spot of administration thrown in for good measure), here’s a thing that I’ve noticed: When administrators give directives, they are much more successful when they focus on the ethics of teaching kids than the tactics of how to do it.

Here’s a completely hypothetical example¹. An administrator notices that there is not as much of an adult presence in the hallways of their school as they might like. There are a variety of thoughts that an administrator might think on this topic:

Assuming the administrator does decide to address the issue, it will likely be in some form of directive to the staff². Does the administrator frame the directive in terms of the tactic of being present in the halls, or do they frame it in terms of the ethic of fostering student wellness?

It is my suggestion that the latter is always preferable to the former.

Enjoy these two examples of possible directives that the administrator might formulate for the hallway situation. First, consider the tactical frame³:

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