In this paper I document the trend in both educational policy and thought in England. Instead of seeing knowledge as a source of freedom as the great philosopher of the Enlightenment would have argued, there is a worrying tendency to trust experience and see knowledge as something to be "freed from". I will explore an alternative to this "fear of knowledge" with the idea that the curriculum of schools should represent all a student or pupil's entitlement to what I will refer to as "powerful knowledge". This requires a clarification of both concepts, "power" and "knowledge". To do this I shall make reference to the concept of "powerful knowledge" as a curriculum principle, the idea that all pupils are "entitled to access to powerful knowledge" and that it is important to distinguish between a national curriculum and a school curriculum and the concepts of curriculum and pedagogy.
Knowledge; School Curriculum; Curriculum Theory; England