This paper presents the thoughts of a retired teacher about experiences in education--both as student and as teacher. Following descriptions and reactions, it is concluded that the problems of education are most manifest in the public funding of education--especially federal funding--since the institution and continuation of programs is not based on true program merits, but on the availability of money to support them. Thus, programs are started, stopped, and supplanted to the detriment of continuity and integrity. Similarly, it is concluded that a restoration of the free market system is needed in education to keep schools concentrating on their true purpose and to eliminate those that do not. With the guaranteed financial support of the state, schools are no longer held accountable for student acquisition of basic competencies; thus all schools simply carry on, whether or not there is a sense of mission. But accountability and a sense of mission will still not be attained if administrators are not also teachers. It is suggested that the trend to educate administrators separetly from teachers and not give them teaching experience can only accelerate the decline of education. Teachers ought to aim at taking control of the school--to claim responsibility in all areas now denied them. (DCS)