It is the pedagogical training of teachers that affects the quality of schools, and it is the quality of schools that affects the quality of professional training. Having begun the reform of education, we have forgotten that it should start with the educators. Russia has made a historical turn. The new society and the new economy require new people with a new value system, with different skills, with largely different knowledge. All aspects of the modernization of school education (curriculum, organizational structure, technology) presuppose a different type of teacher and a different type of school administrator. The article deals with the problems that the changes in society have posed to the school system, and thus to the system of pedagogical training as well, which was caught largely unprepared. The author has long recognized these challenges (such as the low social status of the teacher, low wages, the necessity of profound changes in his/her training etc.) and has been trying to find the answers to them in his work. The lack of reforms in this crucial sphere has already created real and serious risks not only to the system of education, but in fact to the very future of Russia as a whole, including its economy, politics and defense. The article considers a wide range of issues in the pedagogical training that demand serious reform.