ABSTRACT
The English National Curriculum has laid down a number of cross-curricular themes which, it is intended, should be contributed to by every, or by nearly every, prescribed subject. These areas are not specifically time-tabled nor, apparently, is any specific content to be laid down; it is simply asserted and assumed that the other subjects can, and therefore will, contribute to the themes. No one, presumably, doubts the importance of, at any rate, most of the themes, or that many prescribed subjects have a potential contribution to make to at least some of them: it remains to be seen, however, how far those contributions will actually be made. In the absence of specific provision of time and prescription of content within each subject the danger is that the themes may, in practice, wither on the vine. What is everybody’s business may prove to be nobody’s business and the themes may receive lip-service rather than substantial attention.
