Letter writer Bob Husking is right to focus on the value of excellent teachers inspiring their classrooms and developing true potential among gifted pupils. (“Best teachers key”, ST, 11/10). Attending school is both a learning experience spread across a broad curriculum and a socialising experience, fostering real world friendships and emotional resonance among peers. My love of language arose from an amazing English teacher Paul Brock in Lismore in 1974. As hypothesised by Bob Husking, Brock later joined a university department and then moved into the Department of Education, developing syllabus and examination systems for a generation. He was certainly a loss to future classrooms that he might have taught, but he was an extraordinary blessing by formulating excellent policy for all students across the state. The claim that education standards are clearly measurable and are now declining perhaps shouldn’t be blindly accepted, especially when it might be just a political tool for funding. Many of our MPs and business leaders were never at the top of their class and stories abound of millionaires leaving school early because they were lousy at it. Statistical questions and study design can be flawed when evaluating complex human systems to summarise “school standards”. Schooling is a pathway that all must pass, but as another year 12 graduates across the state this month, they must remember than most of us bloomed much later in life. Schools set a great foundation for acquiring knowledge, but we certainly learn far more practical information after leaving the school gates behind us. Alan Sexton, North Parramatta 18October2026
