The restoration of history to the school 'core curriculum', if it takes place, and if it survives the counter-pressures in the Government towards TVEI (Technical and Vocational Educational Initiative), will represent one of the more remarkable pedagogic reversals of our time. The privileged place which the new curriculum gives (in my opinion, quite rightly) to British history is in singular contrast to the implosion which has taken place in English studies, and the abandonment - now endorsed by the National Curriculum Council - of both English literature as a separate classroom subject, and set texts, the 'cultural heritage' which it was the special mission of school English to transmit.

LRB 14 June 1990 | PDF Download