Where are all the talented teachers...?

When I look around the company I work in - Ten Group - I get quite depressed by how talented everyone is.  They are phenomenally clever people - and I'm talking emotional intelligence as well as IQ.  I was talking to our young marketing executive the other day, someone who has taken on loads of responsibility at a young age and is doing brilliantly.  I asked her how she had done at school - all A*s (bar one) in her GCSEs and As at A level and, presumably a first at her university - UCL - one of the top in the country.

Ok - so I'm being dramatic again.... and you want to know why I'm claiming to be depressed.  Well, I'm depressed when I reflect that I ran three schools and could have been so much more effective if I'd been able to employ the sort of people I now work with.  Within a year or so of them being with us, they are doing amazing things.  If they were in the classroom, they'd be brilliant.  Not that I want to let them go of course, but if teaching were able to attract the sort of people we get, our schools would be amazing.

There ought to be some sort of a deal where you can do a year's teaching as a kind of sabbatical, every few years through your career.  Large numbers of teachers would still be permanent, of course, but for these 'intercostal' teachers, you could have a sort of territorial army type deal where you made sure you kept up with your training - and could be called up for a year at the appropriate time.  I'm sure you'd get some real superstars volunteering if the conditions were right.  The quid pro quo would be that teachers could do a year in industry every few years as well.  The main purpose of the latter wouldn't necessarily be to enable them to be better teachers technically, but rather to refresh them and give them broader perspective.

Teaching really hones your communication and organisational skills.  The ability to motivate and persuade people is something as critical to business as it is to the classroom, so this scheme could work.

So guys and gals - how are we going to make it happen?