What becomes of children for whom the biggest life influence outside of their own family has now been downgraded from a successful intellectual role model, to a ‘on-the-job’ trained supervisor who was unable to gain university entry? Creating Schools reminds us that while we argue about reading and instruction styles, the teaching profession is being strangled and students (and teachers!) in record numbers are feeling alienated from education. The implications of this play out in crime, violence and an inestimable cost to society. How we treat and support our teachers in the education system becomes the lens through which our students receive and view education, and then the lens through which they view the world outside of education. It can be characterised by trust, innovation, creativity, autonomy, critical thinking, collaboration and inspiration or blighted by excessive compliance, control, dependency, micromanaging, standardization, meaningless competition, arbitrary ranking and superficial judgement. We are creating society. If education leaders do not create change in the best interests of students and the profession, then we risk more than lowered education standards and reputations. The time to act is now.
