Abstract
Teachers are ethical actors tasked with protecting the best interests of children. This is central to teacher professionalism and written into codes of professional ethics. Ethical teaching demands a teacher qualified and permitted to make both small and large decisions. This capacity is hampered by what is referred to as “quality.” In contrast, practical wisdom describes a daily knowing in which a person considers the right thing to do, the right way to do it, and how to act in a manner that is responsive to context. I showcase how practical wisdom lives in the decisions of one new teacher as she tries to work around quality to act in “the children’s best interest.”