Children as young as five will be expected to learn and recite poetry by heart if a major overhaul of the national curriculum in England's schools goes ahead. Education Secretary Michael Gove would like to see a new focus on the traditional skills of spelling and grammar of which the study of poetry will become an important part. And as any student of history knows, there is nothing new under the sun. In March 1884 Francis William Drew, master at Lydiard Millicent Church of England School, was preparing his pupils for the annual inspection. As a large portion of the school’s funding rested on a pass or fail, and with it Mr Drew’s salary, the inspector’s visit was an important one. The village school at Lydiard had an average weekly attendance of 139 in the spring of 1884. Divided into standards according to ability, children enrolled aged five and worked their way through Standards I to VI if their parents could afford to keep them in school that ...