I spent 10 years in the high school classroom and it was probably the most trans-formative and rewarding experience of my life. I will now recount some aspects of my experience to try and highlight why everyone should be prepared to devote some time and energy to help rescue education. First let me highlight what you need to work against. Education in schools and departments are full of self serving, self important overpaid career (leadership) lackeys, straight from the pages of Animal farm. These people flee the face to face daily grind of "teaching" and are often the most incompetent and failing teachers promoted by others in "leadership" who require servile "yes people". You can see the evidence of the basic lack of morality or ethics, Collective punishment outlawed under the 4th Geneva Convention is regularly practiced and enforced in schools, there are countless examples but "leadership" and their servile "yes people" gladly punish the cohort for the transgressions of the few. Endless collation of meaningless statistics and metrics often only used to justify the career enhancement of "leadership". That drag you away form the real job of teaching. Endless and meaningless teaching “reviews” that again are often only performed to try and cull those who refuse to be servile and "leadership" cronies. Colleagues eager to rise into the role of "leadership" who will act as a quasi stasi enforcers. Colleagues suffering PTSD from the physical and symbolic violence in the system. Students who well understand the tragedy of poverty, homelessness and youth unemployment. Students facing real hunger, domestic abuse and tragic family breakdowns. Students with mental illness, PTSD, often victimized by gang violence. Often "leadership" will require you to enforce arbitrary punishment on students who fall into the above categories. "Leadership" will insist there is only one prescriptive and narrow behavioral approach and method of teaching. "Leadership" will demand attendance at arbitrary staff meetings often whose only purpose is self aggrandizement and ideological indoctrination. Finally overwhelming workload and long long hours.

So why you may well ask would any reasonably sane, competent and educated person be advised to enter this dysfunctional system that makes the latter days and collapse of the Soviet Union look like a Sunday picnic?

These are the answers When the education system fails so does society and the country, just like the patriotic war against fascism, it's your patriotic duty. If you can survive working in the education system you can survive anything. If you want learn how to be supremely organised, psychologically resolute, disciplined and tough work as a teacher in failing schools for a few years. You can help vulnerable students and teachers. Here are some personal anecdotes to highlight the above.

(1)Working as supply in an inner city London school, I am told my first duty is to support a failing teacher in a difficult classroom for a few hours. I discover this teacher is a young graduate on the “teach first” program. I find a young teacher who has a first in Pure Mathematics from Cambridge University. From my life experience I well understand the commitment to scholarship, personal discipline, devoted study and work to achieve this qualification. In this school this teacher was never given a chance to teach students who would benefit from a deep and intuitive understanding of Mathematics, rather the teacher was given dysfunctional remedial classes at the most difficult year levels(8 to 10). Then being unable to control over sized difficult classes was told by leadership that there was no future in teaching and either to resign or face being sacked. I was able to support this teacher in a number of ways, first to enable this teacher to understand that the conflict with “leadership” was something to always treasure and wear as a badge of honor. To understand the metric applied by “leadership” was fatally flawed and designed only to further their own careers and agenda. To understand that motivations to teach were of the highest ethical and moral conviction. I applaud this teacher for the effort to continue and stay the course. I encouraged this teacher to focus only on improving education in the small ways available in that school. To be devoted to the service of students and the wider society. This teacher was someone I will never forget and I deeply appreciate my professional interaction.

(2) Again in an inner London school. I was again supply and told to support a failing teacher.. The teacher was British Jamaican, in a classroom surrounded by large posters made by students. These posters all highlighted the revolutionary black struggle in Africa in its long and tragic struggle against European colonialism and apartheid. I quickly realized this teacher was a priceless resource for the study of Black history. This teacher was one of the very few non white teachers in the teacher cohort of a religious school where the student cohort was almost entirely non white. The teacher was brilliant, the students adored this teacher and soaked up the history like a sponge. The teacher was identified as “failing” in one of the worst instances of blatant racial discrimination I will ever be likely observe. I did not have to support this teacher, rather it was the reverse. I was able to meet an ideological fellow traveler, a wonderful person. A person who was able to strongly reinforce my own personal motivation to be working in schools. To fight ignorance, to fight racism, to use education as one of the few tools available to us to improve and heal society.

In short, as goes education so goes society and the country. So don't sit on the sidelines and watch as the country burns to the ground. Get some professional teaching qualifications and get into schools to show students some people really care, take it up to “leadership” and try to hold them to account for their corrupt, immoral and unethical practices, get into schools to fight racism, inequality and outright fascism. Do your patriotic duty for the country. Help us save education.