"More Creative Thinking about Education, please"

It is no accident that the core subjects for the English baccalaureate ('Exam reform will destroy UK's creative economy' Guardian, 3.11.12) coincide with the 'facilitating' subjects recommended by the Russell Group (Making your post-16 subject choices). The narrowing band of approved subjects for post-16 and 'elite' university study not only omits creative practices, but their history and theory, for example, art and design history, as well as any broader analyses of culture and society (media studies; sociology). The problem for the present government, and for conservative bodies like the Russell Group, is that those so-called soft subjects have the potential to construct convincing critiques of their educational and social values.

My letter published in The Guardian Tuesday 6 November 2012.