The latter paper would also give pupils an opportunity to ‘deconstruct' the curriculum and exam system they are forced to endure, and (in the words of some recent GCSE geography guidelines) ‘to ... become aware of the power relations implicit in any situation and the conflicts and inequalities which may arise.'

What ‘inequalities', for example, ‘may arise' from the AQA Anthology for GCSE English, in which the entire development of English poetry from medieval times until 1914 is represented by 16 poems - apparently chosen without reference to chronology or influence - while three times as many modern poems are included, all of them post-1950, of which three quarters come from four contemporary British poets, such as Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage? What ‘conflicts' can be anticipated from a history curriculum in which candidates in many schools spend years studying Hitler's rise to power, or the impact of the Second World War on British women, without any attempt to place these subjects in a meaningful context? Or from an approach to geography in which pupils are required to parrot the opinions of the examining board on such topical issues as global warming or recycling, without being given the opportunity to examine, let alone to master, the scientific data or techniques which make these concerns comprehensible?