Influencing Young Minds

The introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 laid out clear directions for schools on how young people should be taught. However the teaching of the next generation remains as controversial as ever the curriculum is widely debated and the very purpose of education often questioned. If, as some have argued, the role of the curriculum is to ensure that established knowledge is passed on or that good citizens are created and the problems of society addressed, then what are the implications for the decision-makers in government? Is education simply there to promote political values? Who else has a say in how schools are run? Professor John White (Institute of Education), Andy Thornton (Citizenship Foundation), Frank Furedi (Professor of Sociology, University of Kent) and Melissa Benn (writer and journalist) in a lively discussion about the school curriculum.