ABSTRACT
The emotions figured prominently in teachers' work. They were passionate about their own beliefs, as have seen; they cared for their children; and their teaching had a high emotional content. The National Curriculum, by contrast, treats the child as a student. One of the main responses to the National Curriculum from our teachers was that it left out many aspects of primary teachers' responsibilities. In their attention to 'person making', they were concerned with the personal, social, emotional and intellectual development of children, Theresa's 'teaching people to be people'. Teachers consider it important that the child be valued as a person. The social context is also crucial to person making. Theresa sees the relationship between the 'social hidden curriculum' and academic learning as a 'chicken-and-egg job': This is a super, able class. Teachers consciously attend to children's feelings in relation to learning situations and recognize emotional reactions as signals to be interpreted.
