ABSTRACT
The traditional subjects curriculum has its origin in what were termed, during the Middle Ages, the 'seven liberal arts'. St Augustine of Hippo, in his Retractions, wrote a short account of each of the seven diseiplinae, or disciplines, as he termed them. The story of the development of the curriculum from the eighteenth century on is one of the expansion of subject methods. The traditional curricula had, led to the establishment of traditional methods, in particular of repetition and rote learning, memorization of data and imitation. The committee saw the implications of this view of the curriculum in terms of methodology. They discussed the project method and the possibilities of using this in teaching within the traditional subject divisions. The Newsom Report, published in 1963, is very much a document on the content and nature of the curriculum as well as methods to be employed in giving life to some of the dry bones of the past.
