Consistency is the Last Refuge of the Unimaginative

We’re constantly being sold the narrative that innovation will save education. New tech. New metrics. New training. The Emporer’s new fucking clothes. But what no one wants to admit is that education doesn’t need innovation—it needs some fucking humanity. The real innovation is the teacher. The character. The heavy fucking metal presence in the room. And that’s the bit academy chains are working hardest to erase. It’s paint-by-numbers, muzak, beige BS—and it’s being peddled as progress.

In the push for uniformity, teachers are being stripped of their individuality. Personality has become a ‘problem’, not a strength. It’s happening quietly, strategically, and with full corporate backing. And it’s the students who suffer—stuck in lesson after lesson delivered by unimaginative robots following identical scripts produced by “the director” in some sort of Orwellian homage.

This is not a teaching model. It’s an act of cultural vandalism, sanitising schools of the very people who make them work.

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The Culture is Breaking Teachers

I have explored this topic before, but every year I am reminded of the mess, and every year it makes me question whether I or indeed anyone else should consider this a viable career. The mental health strain is undeniable.

Education should be about young people. Yet, in many schools, the toxic culture takes root—one where certain members of leadership dedicate every waking moment to the institution, and they expect everyone else to do the same, as Aldous Huxley said: ‘Community, Identity, Stability’. These individuals often don’t have the same responsibilities as classroom teachers, but their overcommitment becomes the standard. If you’re not staying late, taking on extra duties, or responding to emails at all hours, you’re not “dedicated enough.” The result? Guilt. Exhaustion. Burnout. This is not commitment—it’s coercion.

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Propaganda Over Progress

Academy leadership are obsessed with their own image, fact! and yet they still need to take a fucking look at themselves in the mirror. Rather than addressing real issues of concern—behaviour, engagement, workload—they are funnelling resources into self-congratulatory propaganda BS. Video idents, overproduced interviews with the CEO, and large-scale events designed to sell leadership like a corporate brand are the norm. Schools are fucking struggling mate, but the priority seems to be massaging the ego of those at the top rather than fixing what actually matters. It’s not great and the optics are shocking. I would love to see the fucking PR company bill!

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