The teaching profession is a vital pillar of society and facing significant challenges in Australia and across the Western world. Teachers shape the minds of future generations, yet their salaries and the respect they deserve often fall short of reflecting their profound impact on our communities.

Furthermore, society frequently fails to provide the essential resources—modern tools, adequate training, and sufficient support staff—needed to fulfill their critical mission.

Compounding these issues, our education systems are plagued by systemic shortcomings: outdated curricula that struggle to prepare students for a rapidly evolving world, inadequate support for diverse learning needs, and a lack of investment in teacher development and well-being.

These factors make it increasingly difficult to recruit new educators and retain the dedicated professionals already in our classrooms.

Why are we struggling to sustain this essential workforce, and how can we address these systemic failures to empower our teachers?

How can we adapt from a system that was originally designed in the Industrial Age to create factory workers and later to some small extent office workers that never really transitioned to the information age as we are now transitioning into the experience age and the age of intelligence that many of us are having trouble even grasping much less keeping up with.

Our guest today is someone who is committed to exploring these critical questions and coming up with actionable steps to strengthen the profession and practices that can help shape our world.

Ben Simmons has a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Education and a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy. He is an educator and psychotherapist, a consulatant for the department of education and he joins us here today .