IN his excellent plea for restoring creativity to the curriculum, Terry Deary could not have better portrayed the young “blitzed Brits” who are the targets of “today’s repressive education”.
Realistically, however, the more narrowly prescriptive the road along which the national curriculum is driven, the less likely are we to see a U-turn and the abolition of the elements he most abhors: the fear of failure, national tests, teachers forced to deliver ready-made lessons, leagu tables, payment by results, and exam drilling.
But this is no cause for disconsolate “deary deary me-ing”! It is surely time for counter-action: to press for pluralism in education, which would open the way to truly creative curricula - such as Steiner Waldorf and the Free School Movement - to be made available in this country, as elsewhere in Europe and across the world, without financial discrimination.
Dr Brien Masters. Priory Road. Forest Row, Roehampton.
