Policy

Why The New Curriculum Needs Classics

Gráinne Cassidy, Katrina Kelly and Judith Mossman make the case for Classics and the breadth and coherence they can bring to the curriculum.
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Primary school children reading a classical book together.

Restoring Access to Classics

What better way to achieve the ambition of a curriculum that is rich, broad, inclusive and innovative than to give all children the opportunity to study one or more classical subjects? Classics encompasses the study of ancient societies which have had enormous influence on our own. Between them, the Greek and Roman civilisations developed the fundamentals of our own literature, art, music, mathematics, engineering, medicine, physics, law and government.

It is impossible to understand European – or indeed North American – history without reference to classical civilisation. The erosion of the humanities in schools has been significant of late, which has greatly impoverished the school experience. One very simple way of adding relish to this starvation diet would be to restore access to a fundamental humanities subject: Classics.

The continuing capacity of classical subjects to reinvent themselves is demonstrated constantly in popular culture via books, plays, films and games. However, there is still a long way to go to get Classics embedded at all key stages in schools and for the valuable and enriching courses offered in the tertiary sector to be protected.

Research indicates that Classics boosts social mobility, fosters cultural capital and supports literacy, especially amongst disadvantaged students, but access to subjects like Classical Civilisation still relies on ‘wealth or luck’.[1]  

Support for Classics in the Curriculum

Only the national curriculum review can definitively change this by enshrining Classical subjects in the new curriculum. However, the Classics community has not been resting on its laurels. We have been working very hard for many years, with significant success, to restore access to classical subjects across the board.[2]

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