(UK) I was still teaching when the Government of the day tried to standardise everything with the National Curriculum. I was paid rather a small salary for being Head of Department and in charge of FOUR areas of the Curriculum, also Religious Studies AND Fundraising throughout the school. My father told me at the time he paid his Directory Enquiry staff much more than that, just to find telephone numbers for callers. The new Curriculum was (and still is, IMO) stultifying and unsuccessful. I was asked to teach 'The Abdication' and 'The Depression' to eight year olds. Only last Friday, I visited the Village School near my home. The handwriting was truly appalling, spelling atrocious, the standard of maths and English woeful for the age of the pupils. My neighbour's boy, in High School, comes to me for extra help with his homework. His handwriting and punctuation would make one weep. I get so depressed. Whatever are we doing in schools? One would think that the children spent all day messing about. (Maybe that is the case!) The shame of it is, I know I could, given a term, get these children up to scratch in the basics if allowed to use my own (yes, old-fashioned) methods. But I'd probably be thrown out as a cruel taskmaster. I sincerely pity employers if this is the raw material they have to work with. The sixteen year-olds are barely literate, hardly numerate amd allergic to applying themselves to hard work. God help us is all I can say! (Sorry about this long rant, but as a teacher for all my long life, it enrages me.)