In this article, the author reflects on key events and issues with which he has been involved for 50 years. First, he gives a brief account of the Schools Council--what it meant in terms of the limited role of government in governing education, and in terms of the role of teachers as curriculum thinkers, not deliverers. Its demise in the 1980s coincided (necessarily) with a more centralised educational service. But that earlier, more subservient role of government gave rise to some of the most significant educational reports ever written which covered the whole expanse of education and training. Second, he briefly notes, in what was called "the great debate", the battles of ideas which took place in the 1970s over the content and aims of education, and the felt need of government to change the partnership between central and local government and the teachers. Third, that of course was made possible through not only the increased central accountability of the teachers, but also the gradual demise of local government and responsibility. There is now little between the schools and the Secretary of State. Fourth, he illustrates how far that partnership has been transformed, indeed to the point of disappearance. Fifth, the author looks to the future. Such a future is no doubt reflected through the nostalgic spectacles of the past, but that past embodied the ideal of local responsibility and accountability for education and of public service. It rightly in his view was built on a fear of an all-powerful government without the counterbalancing forces of local control. And it saw the centrality of a teaching profession which was not beholden to political masters in the content and methods of teaching. They, the teachers, should be the thinkers, not the deliverers.