ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of the practices that exist within education and seeks to encourage the reader to ask questions about them: about why they came into existence; why they have been maintained; and what explanations are currently offered for them. As a contribution to helping teachers look at what goes on in education with detachment and in terms of how practice relates to their own values, the authors turn their attention to myths, rituals, and routines. The authors' use of the terms 'rituals' and 'routines' is much more in line with the everyday usage and need take little space by way of explanation. Routines are those aspects of daily or regular practice that are done because that's the way the business gets done. The emphasis on educational targets, narrowing the focus to the basic parts of the curriculum, is based on the myth that there has been a decline in educational performance.
