Thomas Gradgrind asked little Sissy Jupe ("Girl number twenty") to 'define a horse'. She and her father worked with horses in a circus, and she viewed them with much joy and admiration for their beauty and power. But Gradgrind didn't like her stammered reply, and asked a ghastly little toady called Bitzer. He reeled off a list of a horse's anatomy such as 'quadruped' and different teeth etc. Gradgrind approved of this boring list and Sissy was made to feel inadequate. ('Hard Times', Charles Dickens)

This passage seems to me to epitomise the blasted National Curriculum.

As with DMcG's cannon, one can impart a fascinating, rounded view of the world in all its wonderful complexity, involving all the disciplines and areas of study. Or one can see...er...a cannon.