LIBERAL EDUCATION AND THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM
By David Conway
Civitas. 127 pages. £9.00
ISBN 978-1-906837-11-2
This work of educational history and philosophy seeks to address the current debate as to whether or not disadvantaged children are like hamsters on a treadmill and are merely being taught to jump through academic hoops rather than being given a rounded liberal education.
It deals with questions to which teachers instinctively know the answers while politicians and academics debate incessantly. Is the National Curriculum too prescriptive? Is it unsuited to the needs of today’s pupils? Should schools be given more freedom to interpret it in a more imaginative way? Should we not be educating pupils for life rather than for exam success?
