Teaching has never been an easy mission. We expect teachers to imagine the future and to start living it today, so their students can thrive in it later. And yet, when they do, society is not always cheering them on. Sometimes people are sceptical or nervous. Sometimes they simply ask, “Why can’t we keep doing things the way we used to?”
But that is no longer good enough. Today, the things that are easiest to teach and test are also the easiest to digitise and automate. If a machine can learn it faster than you, remember it longer than you, and apply it more consistently than you, then continuing to teach only traditional subject matter – using traditional approaches - is not a great strategy. So the focus of education needs to shift. From students who can reproduce what they have learned to students who can extrapolate from what they know and apply it creatively in novel situations. Students need an education to not only prepare them for today’s jobs, but also for roles that don’t yet exist.
This is no easy feat, particularly as we live in a time where information is abundant, but attention is scarce. Where what goes viral often beats what is true. Where statements that feel right can spread faster than facts that are right. Algorithms don’t just show us content, they shape our view of the world, amplifying our beliefs while sometimes quietly muting opposing viewpoints. In this digital marketplace, education is under strain. Teaching reading is no longer just about reading and writing. It is about helping students navigating truth, question their sources, and resist manipulation. It is about helping them to recognise interconnections, navigate ambiguity, and reconcile tensions between competing demands - equity and freedom, autonomy and community, innovation and continuity, efficiency and the democratic process.
Schools have traditionally broken problems into neat little pieces and trained students to solve each piece. Schools themselves have been built on separation: Subjects separated from each other; students separated by expectations for their academic success; schools separated from communities. But modern societies increasingly create value in a very different way: with a greater focus on connecting ideas, integrating perspectives, and seeing patterns where others see fragments. Innovation doesn’t come from staying in your lane; it comes from connecting dots no one else sees. Instruction in the past was subject-based, but instruction in the future needs to be more project-based. Students need experiences that help them think across disciplines without losing depth of understanding or rigour.
The past aimed for standardisation and compliance. The future demands personalisation and ingenuity. In the past, schools were technological islands, with technology often limited to supporting and conserving existing practices, and students outpacing schools in their adoption of technology. Now schools need to consider how to use technologies to free learning from outdated constraints.
We have also built schools around individual achievement. Students typically learn on their own and at the end of the school year, we certify what each person has accomplished. But the more interdependent the world becomes, the more we need great collaborators. Innovation is now rarely the product of individuals working in isolation, but rather an outcome of how we mobilise, share and integrate knowledge.
Changing demands have also elevated the role of social and emotional skills and character formation. Social and emotional skills are key to achieving goals, living and working with others and managing emotions. In fact, developing social and emotional skills is often what distinguishes many of the best schools. But for the majority of students, character formation in school remains a matter of luck, depending on whether it is a priority for their teacher, since there are still few education systems that have made such broader goals an integral part of what they expect from students.
Social and emotional skills matter even more in a multi-faceted world. Success depends on how well you collaborate with people who think differently, live differently, and may be thousands of miles away. Students are growing up in a world where their ideas travel instantly across borders, where global challenges ignore boundaries, and where technology connects people to perspectives they may never encounter at home. Employers know this. That is why they value people who are open to the world, curious and adaptable.
The foundations for this don’t always come naturally. We are all born with a sense of belonging to our families and communities, but it requires great teachers who help us develop the capacity to relate to others who are different to ourselves and to extend trust beyond our immediate circle. Teachers can help students think for themselves, empathise with others, and grow into responsible citizens. They can nurture a strong sense of right and wrong, and an understanding of the limits of individual and collective action.
This brings us back to the role of teachers. Real learning happens when students are engaged, when they care, when they are intrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation doesn’t come from grades or threats of disappointment at the dinner table. It comes from four very human things:
Purpose: understanding why something matters.
Mastery: the joy of getting better at something that matters.
Relatedness: feeling valued, supported and connected.
Autonomy: having the freedom to learn.
That is the magic of teaching, where teachers don’t just transfer knowledge, but build relationships. Where teachers understand their students, appreciate who they want to become and accompany them on their journey.
The rise of AI should sharpen education’s focus on human capabilities that cannot be reduced to code - our consciousness, our capacity to navigate complex relationships, to exercise ethical judgement in uncertainty, to create something genuinely new. These are not pedagogical ornaments or beautiful words, they are what education is all about, and they belong to the pillars on which we build our societies. And if teachers don’t protect these pillars with determination, the worlds tremors could wash away the very foundations of our societies.