Drawing on forty years of teaching and research, from primary school to adult education and workplace training, award-winning author Mike Rose reflects on questions related to public schooling in America. He answers them in beautifully written chapters that are both rich in detail - a first-grader conducting a science experiment, a carpenter solving a problem on the fly, a college student's encounter with a story by James Joyce - and informed by a deep and powerful understanding of history, the psychology of learning and the politics of education.