Teaching is emerging from a period when attempts were made to confine and control it using industrial methods. It has become evident that this has failed either to deliver improved educational outcomes or to capture the essential nature of a teacher's work. This book by an experienced practising teacher offers an alternative interpretation of what it means to teach and proposes a perspective on the profession that represents the actual work of teachers in a fairer and more accurate way. Ian Stock's gripping new book makes an unapologetically personal examination of the problems that the approaches and policies of recent years have created for the classroom teacher. It is not afraid to tackle big issues, such as the burden of unnecessarily heavy management. It also casts doubt on the application of `big data' and purely theoretical approaches, saying that they cannot but fail to have relevance to the intimate scale at which real education functions. Instead, the book proposes a small-scale approach whereby the individual practitioner is both empowered and responsible for the development of their own best practice using a set of general principles discussed herein.