In her Des English Memorial Lecture, the author provides some commentary on the changes that have occurred during her career in relation to the field of special education. In the 25 years that she has worked as an educator and been involved in special education in one way or another, there have been very significant and fundamental changes of practice, theoretical perspective and knowledge base in relation to student behavior. She looks at the theme of this year's conference: "Behaviour--Whose Choice?" and considers the things that affect the choices people make in relation to behaviour--whether they are teachers, administrators, parents or members of the broader community. In particular she looks at how perceptions of power and control and the effect of cultural and contextual variables have an impact on people's choices in relation to student behaviour. She also discusses the reasons for the escalating rates of student suspension in Tasmania and in most other systems, which seems to be pretty solid evidence that whatever people are doing at the present as a school system response to student misbehaviour is not working very well. (Contains 3 figures.)