The Corruption of the Curriculum - Softcover

'Learning 'ruined by political meddling' in schools. In history, pupils use bin Laden speeches. In science, debates on abortion replace lab work. The Curriculum in state schools has been stripped of its content and corrupted by political interference, according to a damning report today by an influential independent think-tank. It warns of an educational apartheid opening up between the experience of pupils in the state sector and those at independent schools.'Front Page splash, Daily Telegraph, June 11th'A devastating study by the think tank Civitas shows that it is possible to leave school with almost no knowledge of English literature and only the merest acquaintance with British history.' Leader column, Daily Telegraph, June 11th'Education today is a form of child abuse - Yesterday's report on British education from the independent think-tank Civitas represents a dispatch from the battlefield describing a national catastrophe. It is no surprise that pupils learn so little because so much curriculum time has been hijacked for the peddling of propaganda about racism, gender awareness, environmentalism and suchlike.' Max Hastings, Daily Mail, June 12th

The authors of this book examine the British National Curriculum from several different perspectives and concentrate on various subject areas. The uniting theme between these essays is the argument that the subjects in the school curriculum used to be regarded as discrete areas of knowledge which would be imparted to pupils by teachers motivated by a love of learning, but that this has not been enough for recent governments who see schools as a means of promoting social and political goals that may or may not relate to traditional academic disciplines.The contributors to this book argue that we need to return to the traditional view of education as a means of transmitting a body of knowledge from one generation to the next, and that academic rigour and respect for the professionalism of teachers should take precedence over political manipulation of the curriculum.