ABSTRACT
The main purpose of the PRISMS project was to describe the curriculum of small schools. This chapter provides information about the work of pupils and teachers in this type of primary school. This rational 'conservative' approach may be contrasted with what Richards terms a 'romantic' view, originating in the child development movement of the nineteenth century. The curriculum is planned so that it follows the sequence of man's natural order of development. In the public arena, however, the struggle for the primary curriculum has largely been conducted as a debate between the conservative and the romantic views. Central to the rhetoric of the primary school curriculum has been the belief that concepts and skills can be generalized and practised across different areas of content. It is widely held that children in primary schools should learn a range of skills and perhaps attitudes to those skills which would serve them well in later life.
