Today’s insights and invitation are brought to you by our colleague and founder of Future Smart-ed, Jude Foulston.
Education is in crisis – not only because teachers are leaving, but because we’re still riding a system designed for another century.
I read this article recently reflecting on the teacher attrition crisis and the changing nature of parent–school relationships. A piece that surfaces sobering statistics and reminds us of the fragile trust between schools, teachers, and parents. I agree with many of its insights, but it also left me with pressing questions: where does the real responsibility for change lie, and why are we still reluctant to name the deeper problem – a broken system?
The Dead Horse We’re Still Riding.
I was reminded of the following quote I read in the Leading in a Changing World book, written by my colleagues, Graeme Codrington and Keith Coats
“When you discover you’re riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”
That’s the reality of education today. The structures we’re riding were built for another time, and they no longer carry us where we need to go.
That doesn’t mean every school or teacher is failing – far from it. Every day, incredible educators create pockets of belonging, opportunity, and resilience for our children. But they’re doing this in spite of the system, not because of it.
And that’s the heart of the problem: we’re asking passionate teachers and leaders to keep patching up a system that was never designed for the 21st century.
The Leadership Vacuum.
At a teachers’ conference I attended this year, I heard two days of the same well-intentioned messages we’ve all been repeating for years: Critical thinking, more play time for junior schools, more connection, the questions about mobile phones, better teacher wellbeing, and other ‘21st-century skills’.
But here’s the thing – there was barely a whisper about practical solutions for any real system change. There was one speaker who I recall who actually challenged the system itself, but even then, we need more than words right now – we need action.
Every educator knows how broken the system feels. But isn’t that where leadership must step in?
- Government leadership (though let’s be honest, we can’t wait for it).
- School leadership, willing to be braver than compliance.
- Corporate leadership, because talent shortages will hit your bottom lines.
- Family leadership, because the system shaping our children is about as personal as it gets.
Change is hard, yes. Some days it feels impossible. Other days, I see schools providing safety, belonging, and opportunity. Maybe that’s the tension: imagine what educators could do in a system that actually supported their passion.
The Role of Teachers Has Changed
That article that sparked this one, suggested we’re failing to acknowledge teachers’ professional expertise. But I’d go further: we’re failing to acknowledge that the role of teachers has fundamentally changed, and we’re failing to equip our teachers with the new set of skills that are essential in the 21st century classroom. To be honest, the set of skills that enables them to maintain that ‘expert’ status.
In a world where answers are a smartphone away, is it any surprise teachers feel vulnerable? And when every profession demands constant unlearning and relearning, is it surprising teachers feel exhausted?
The problem isn’t teachers’ willingness to adapt – they’ve already done a huge amount. The problem is that the system that they are trying to work within is broken. Their professional development and training lags critically behind the reality of 2025.
Too much PD still looks like the classrooms that they teach in….. that look like the classrooms did in 1925 – content delivery from the front to rows of blank faces. What teachers need is time and permission to learn, and unlearn, collaborate, experiment, set boundaries, and model curiosity. And to feel supported when doing so.
Imagine instead:
- Unlearning workshops to drop outdated practices and try fresh ones.
- Curiosity labs where teachers test student-led learning and reflect on outcomes.
- Wellness sessions where digital wellbeing is developed as a professional skill.
Globally, only 29% of teachers say their PD impacts their classroom practice (McKinsey, 2020). That gap between theory and practice could explain why so many feel like they’re constantly adapting, yet still unsupported.
Authoritarian Habits in a 21st Century
Here’s the deeper issue: many schools still operate on authoritarian habits inherited from the industrial era.
So, when the whole grade 7 class is given extra homework because one kid in the class won’t keep quiet – that’s not ‘expertise.’ That’s authoritarian power that says to every student: “why bother, I’ll get into trouble either way.”
It might sound like a small frustration, but it reflects a bigger truth: too many schools still run on authoritarian habits inherited from the industrial era. An era when one person not doing their job correctly in the production line would impact the entire production line, making ‘compliance’ an essential skill in factories.
But in 2025, I’d suggest that curiosity is needed more than compliance. And that respect looks different to what it did last century. And too often, school culture still rewards compliance over curiosity.
The days of ‘do as you’re told’ and ‘don’t question what I’m telling you to do’ are surely done? Respect in 2025 isn’t commanded through titles or punishment. Fear cannot be the foundation for learning. Rather, respect is earned through mutual trust, adaptability, and modelling the skills we claim to value: creativity, resilience, and collaboration.
Questions Leaders Should Be Asking
If we’re serious about preparing kids for the future, every head, board, and parent community should be asking more questions:
- What have we unlearnt this term to make space for what’s needed?
- Do we emphasise EQ as much as academics and sport? (If yes, who’s your Head of EQ?)
- How are we supporting teachers – and checking if that support is actually useful?
- If we want lifelong learners, how are we personally modelling lifelong learning?
- What are we still doing just because “it’s what we’ve always done”?
- How is our current curriculum serving our learners?
- And for parents: how often are we stepping in to fix problems our children should be solving for themselves?
Leadership Can’t Wait for Policy
Systemic leadership must start with school heads and boards, supported by parents and industry. With UNESCO (2023) estimating a global shortfall of 44 million teachers by 2030, there’s no time to wait.
Government has a role, but history shows change rarely begins with policy. Take Finland, often held up today as a global education model. Its transformation was gradual: from about the 1970s onward, local educators and municipalities in Finland experimented with greater teacher autonomy and equity-driven practices. Over subsequent decades, national legislation, curriculum reform, and system coordination formalised and scaled many of the practices that had proved effective locally (Sahlberg, 2011; OECD, e.g. Education Policy Outlook).
We can’t lose our teachers! But saving them isn’t going to happen at teacher conferences, or with a one size fits all, static PD programme either. It’s about redesigning systems, cultures, and expectations for the century we’re in. It’s about up-skilling our teachers in the same way we should be helping our learners learn.
So, let’s be those brave humans the world needs right now:
- Brave enough to unlearn what no longer serves.
- Brave enough to relearn together.
- Brave enough to redesign education for the century our children are actually living in.
- Brave enough to take action.
If you’re a school leader – or a parent who wants your child’s school to lead with courage – I’d love to invite you to join our waiting list to become one of the founding members of our Cheese on Wheels club. We launch on Monday 27th October.
It’s a monthly dose of inspiration, tools, leadership resources, and conversation starters designed to help schools take small, brave steps toward the kind of education our children deserve, and the spaces our teachers need.
Change won’t come from policy. It will come from people like us – willing to begin.
Jude Foulston has spent nearly two decades working alongside global futurists, helping leaders and educators prepare for a changing world. As a parent who has explored and lived different ways of learning, she understands both the hope and the heartbreak of trying to make education work in a system that feels outdated. Jude is passionate about helping teachers and parents take small, brave steps toward meaningful change, because our children can’t afford to wait for the system to catch up.