The Invention of the Secondary Curriculum (Hardcover)

Across much of the world there is now a standard secondary school curriculum based, with variations, on a traditional array of academic subjects. This book's originality lies in its being the first work to tell the story of its invention, tracing this from the sixteenth century until the present day and highlighting its links, until recent times, with radical protestantism. The central focus is on British history, but international, not least American, perspectives also appear throughout. There are two more original features of the book. Its historical account is supplemented by a critical commentary on the shifting arguments given across the centuries for favouring such a curriculum. And the book concludes with a philosophically-rooted sketch of a more acceptable alternative: a curriculum based on a well-argued set of fundamental aims rather than one taking traditional school subjects as its starting point.