Offering an anarchist perspective on State schooling in England and its centralisation from the late 1960s until the present day, this book proposes how the education of children and young people might be recaptured from the State as the country moves into a precarious future. This powerful indictment of state-dictated schooling and of the gulf between data-driven performance and education leads into a passionately argued vision of how things could be. Both analysis and prescription draw on very wide reading, including sympathetically but critically presented anarchist perspectives. But they reflect, deeply, David Hargreaves' long experience as a teacher, researcher, LEA chief inspector, government adviser and wide involvement in professional development. The style combines deep personal involvement with unfailingly lucid analysis. The book is a distinctive and distinguished achievement ? Tony Edwards, Emeritus Professor Of Education, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK ? Dominant models of schooling favoured by the UK and many other countries across the world have not only ceased to be fit for the imperatives of contemporary purpose. They also exemplify and extend a national and international betrayal of education. In times such as these, a book which names the malaise, identifies and analyses it key failings and proposes an imaginative, inspiring and profoundly life-affirming alternative is to be welcomed with open arms. Opportune, imaginative, deeply practical and utterly necessary, this remarkable book offers a contribution of immense national and international importance ? Michael Fielding, Emeritus Professor, UCL Institute of Education, UK After 50 years in English education I thought I knew its history and the reforms it needs.? How wrong I was.? This book has forced me to question and reject some of my basic assumptions. The process was unsettling and exhilarating, challenging and truly educational. Frank Coffield, Emeritus Professor of Education, UCL Institute of Education, London University, UK