The sleep of reason breeds monsters: the birth of a statutory curriculum in England and Wales

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Abstract
In the representative system, the reason for everything must publicly appear. Every man is a proprietor in Government, and considers it a necessary part of his business to understand. It concerns his interest, because it affects his property. He examines the cost, and compares it with the advantages; and above all, he does not adopt the slavish custom of following what in other governments are called leaders (Paine 1969: 184). 1 1. We have left the quotation in its original form, although we are aware it is gender blind. View all notes Reaction and revolt are opposite faces of the same thing. Both are authoritarian attempts to solve society's problems. Both know the answers to current dilemmas even before they have been articulated. In the one case the object of the authoritarian action is the achievement of an imaginary state of affairs that existed in the past; in the other of an equally imaginary state of affairs that, it is believed, will exist in the future. Neither school of thought allows that problems and solutions have to be looked for and discovered, and that where these affect whole communities, the act of discovery is one in which the community should be involved (Reid 1978: 11).

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